A student demonstrator against a new high-voltage electricity line in northern France was handed a three-month jail term Wednesday, in what campaigners decried as a politically charged judgement.

Michael Garabello, 24, was convicted of using violence against two gendarmes who were slightly hurt during a June 24 confrontation between demonstrators and police.

At a preliminary hearing in the case earlier this month, prosecutors had conceded that the student's responsibility for the injuries suffered by the officers had not been established.

Yanic Soubien, the Green vice-president of the local regional council, described the sentence as "scandalous."

He added: "It makes you question the independence of the judiciary in relation to the industrial lobby."

The high-voltage line, which is scheduled to be finished next year, is due to carry electricity from a new reactor at the Flamanville nuclear power plant on France's Channel coast.

The 163-kilometres (102-mile) line has been bitterly opposed by residents who fear it could raise the incidence of some cancers, notably childhood leukaemia, and affect the health of cattle in a prime dairy farming area.

Defence advocate Gervais Marie-Doutressoulle said her client had been "made a scapegoat in a country where being anti-nuclear is by definition suspect.

"Twenty five to 30 injuries, three of them serious, among the protesters -- that's peanuts compared to gendarmes twisting their fingers?"

The court also fined local farmers leader Michel Houssin, 51, for having unscrewed several bolts on a pylon being built for the contested line.

Houssin was given a 1,000 euros fine and ordered to pay 3,300 euros in damages and the legal costs of electricity company EDF.