EasyJet was reportedly fined €60,000 by a French court yesterday for having refused to allow a disabled passenger to board for “security” reasons.
The criminal court in Bayonne, southern France heard that staff at the budget carrier denied boarding for Joseph Etcheveste, 55, in Biarritz in July 2010 because he was “unaccompanied”.
“EasyJet refused to let my client board because it deemed there were security problems. They still have not been able to explain what they were,” said his lawyer Anne-Marie Mendiboure.
The carrier was previously fined €70,000 in December 2015 for refusing access to three people with disabilities for the same reasons.
There were also similar rulings in the two previous years, The Guardian reported. The airline said it had merely imposed “internal rules”.
Etcheveste was an associate of former Basque separatist leader Philippe Bidart and was partially paralysed when he was shot in the spine as he was being arrested by French police in 1987.
EasyJet lawyer Maud Marian told the AFP news agency she was not surprised at the court judgement while stressing that the airline “never intended to discriminate against the plaintiff” and was unlikely to appeal the decision.