(NaturalNews) The Parisian High Court has ruled that French Professor Gilles-Eric Seralini, a scientist known for his controversial research linking GM feed with cancerous tumor growth in rats, was right when he concluded that GMOs are unsafe for human consumption.
Marc Fellous, former chairman of France's Biomolecular Engineering Commission (BEC), has been indicted for "forgery" and "the use of forgery," in a libel trial that he lost to Prof Gilles-Eric Seralini.
The BEC authorized multiple GM crops as safe for human consumption, while lying to the public and hiding scientific data suggesting GM food may be carcinogenic and health-damaging.
Details of the case are not available to the public, but according to an article on Seralini's website, Fellous had used or copied the signature of a scientist, without his agreement, to argue that Seralini and his co-researchers were wrong in their reassessment of Monsanto's own rat feeding studies.
During the reassessments – supported by the independent organization CRIIGEN – alarming signs of toxicity were reported when GMOs and Roundup were used long-term.
The sentence against Fellous is expected to be handed down in June 2016.
Second court victory reached
This was actually Seralini's second court win in the battle against toxic GM food, which all started in September 2012, when an article written by Jean-Claude Jaillette was published in Marianne magazine. It accused Seralini's team of "scientific fraud in which the methodology served to reinforce pre-determined results."
After a three-year lawsuit, the 17th Criminal Chamber of the High Court of Paris fined Marianne magazine and its journalists for public defamation of a public official, and public defamation of the researchers and CRIIGEN, chaired by Dr. Joel Spiroux de Vendomois.
The latest trial found that the original accusation, published in Forbes Magazine, actually came from American lobbyist Henry I. Miller, also known to discredit research linking tobacco and cancer.
The fight isn't over
Seralini's long-term studies linking GMOs and glyphosate to rat tumors are being republished, after being retracted by the journal Food and Chemical Toxicology, under pressure from lobbyists at Monsanto and within the Biotech industry.
They pushed the creation of a new position on the original Food and Chemical Toxicology journal: Associate Editor for Biotechnology. This new position was filled by a former Monsanto employee, who convinced the journal to withdraw the article.
Why this article needed to go
While studying Monsanto's own data, Seralini and his team found significant chronic kidney deficiencies and larger tumors in rats fed GM maize. They believe that endocrine disruptions and overexpression of EPSPS transgene or other mutational effects in the GM maize are responsible for causing these issues.
In their long-term studies, both treatment and control groups were fed uncontrolled GM feed. Eleven out of 13 of the diets were found to contain GMOs. Monsanto's safety report concluded that GM canola was safe due to a lack of difference between the two groups.
When the scientists took a closer look at Monsanto's data, however, they found the Purina feed given to the control group to be contaminated with 12.8% GM soy and 35.6% GM maize, which wasn't even labeled as GM at all.
Seralini's reassessment concludes that long-term trials are needed to evaluate the safety of GM foods and the use of pesticides before making them available to the public.
Seralini also recently published a summary of the toxic effects of Roundup below regulatory thresholds. Read the full report here.