Cedric Herrou, 37, was tried for illegally helping migrants across the French-Italian border under the noses of the French police, and then giving them accommodation.

The farmer from southern France who had sought to aid migrants escaped with a token sentence on Friday after being convicted of picking up illegal immigrants on the Italian side of the border, the Agence France-Presse news agency reported.

A court in Nice handed down a suspended fine of 3,000 euros to Cedric Herrou, while clearing him of related charges of harboring illegal immigrants and aiding their travel, the report said.

The sentence is far lighter than the eight month prison term that prosecutors had requested.

Herrou's lawyer Zia Oloumi, speaking to BFMTV television on the steps of the courthouse, said the court had recognized "that Mr Herrou's action was taken for purely humanitarian purposes."

Herrou has been a vocal critic of France's migration policies, particularly its efforts to prevent undocumented people crossing from Italy. Recent years have seen beefed-up security measures at the border.

Herrou was unrepentant before hearing the verdict, saying he would not stop helping people, mainly sub-Saharan Africans who had illegally come to Europe. He has been arrested two times in the past, once in August 2016, then in October of the same year for illegally helping immigrants cross national European borders. The Schengen zone does not apply for non-European Union nationals.

"Yes, of course, we know," the socialist mayor of Breil-sur-Roya, André Ipert, said in an interview. "Yes, of course, he is outside the law. This happens in France, seemingly not caring for French law."

Many of those making the perilous crossing of the Mediterranean from Africa to Italy seek to continue onwards to France, Germany and the U.K. (one of the reasons why the British voted to leave the European Union last summer) and other European countries.

He is one of several people to appear in court in southern France recently charged with illegally assisting migrants who have traveled up through Europe after crossing the Mediterranean in rickety boats.

Their cases have pitched the spirit of solidarity against the letter of the law at a time when border controls and migration have become hot issues in the run-up to this year's presidential and legislative elections in France.

On Jan. 7, a court acquitted researcher Pierre-Alain Mannoni, who had faced a six month suspended jail sentence for aiding Eritrean migrants who entered France from Italy.