Pave: Less Than Stunning Justice, Update

Le jour 138 de Sarko

UNE JEUNE FEMME GRIÈVEMENT BRÛLÉE
APRÈS L’ATTAQUE D’UN BUS*
[A YOUNG WOMAN GRIEVOUSLY BURNT AFTER BUS ATTACK]
29 octobre 2006 (Figaro/AP/AFP)

Our original post can be found here.

FRENCH TEENS JAILED FOR RIOT BUS ATTACK

MARSEILLE September 29, 2007 (AFP) - A French court on Friday ordered two teenagers jailed for eight years for an arson attack on a bus which left a young French-Senegalese woman horrifically burned.

The youths, aged 15 and 16, were among a gang who firebombed a bus in the southern city of Marseille during a brief flare-up of violence coinciding with the first anniversary of the 2005 riots in poor French suburbs.

One passenger, Mama Galledou, a 26-year-old university student of Senegalese origin, was trapped inside the bus and suffered burns to two thirds of her body.

Skim warning -- have Kleenex to hand.

Both teenagers appeared stunned as the judge read out the sentence at the end of the high profile trial.

They had denied any intention to cause harm, saying they wanted to attract the attention of media covering the anniversary of the riots.

Stunned. [Pause.] You see, the "youths" had simply sought to firebomb a bus as a sort of banlieue press release. The intention to do harm never occurred to them. That the bus happened to be full of passengers and that a passenger caught fire, well, who'd've thought? Just one of those crazy things.

We note in the original story, the public prosecutor had bruited a sentence of thirty years in the papers. The professed intention of the accused obviously went a long way toward attenuating the prosecution's bluster.

After serving short time the "youths" will walk free. On the other hand, Mlle. Galledou will wake every remaining day of her life to their handiwork.

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* Absolutely no delinquent Muslims or maghrébins sighted during the writing of this AFP report.

PFFT (What is this?): Stunning verdict 1½ | Rayonnement français ½