French interior minister Sarkozy vows tough sentences for bus attackers

AFP via The Tocqueville Connection ^ | 11/01/2006

[Republicain]

MARSEILLE, France, Nov 1, 2006 (AFP) - French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy on Wednesday demanded severe punishments for the perpetrators of an arson attack on a bus that has left a young woman critically burned.

"The people who did this should be brought to account, whatever their age ... Minors between 16 and 18 who repeatedly commit offences should be punished as if they were adults," said Sarkozy, who hopes to become the right-wing's candidate in France's 2007 presidential election.

Five French teenagers have been arrested over the firebombing of the bus in the southern city of Marseille at the weekend. Some have admitted being involved, according to a source close to the inquiry.

The youths, one aged 15 and four aged 17, were being held in police custody in Marseille following their arrest in a dawn raid on Tuesday.

A judge will decide on Thursday whether to place them under investigation, the first stage towards pressing charges.

Sarkozy visited Marseille late on Wednesday to meet the family of the victim, a 26-year-old university student of Senegalese origin, who suffered burns to 60 percent of her body in the attack.

Mama Gelledou was unable to get out of the bus in time after youths doused the vehicle with petrol and set it alight. She is in a Marseille burns clinic in an induced coma with doctors unsure that she will survive.

Sarkozy confirmed she remained in a "very critical" condition. Her attackers face 30 years in jail if she is permanently disabled and a life sentence if she dies, public prosecutor Jacques Beaume told reporters.

"I promised her family we would find the perpetrators," the presidential hopeful told reporters. "I always keep my word."

The attack was the worst incident in a wave of violence which flared up in some suburbs around France last week, coinciding with the first anniversary of the 2005 riots in mainly-immigrant suburbs around the country.

Nine buses were targeted by hooded or masked youths hurling firebombs last week, though the Marseille attack was the only one in which someone was seriously hurt.

At least four more buses were targeted by stone-throwing youths in separate incidents in western Paris suburbs on Tuesday night. In one case, in Guyancourt, they hurled a Molotov cocktail which failed to go off.

Six people were also arrested for setting fire to cars in the suburban department of Essonne, south of the capital.

[Caipirabob]

Uh, oh - The "youts" have France's attention now!

[Zuben Elgenubi]

I had a good friend who in 1986 suffered from massisve burns similar to the woman in this article. He also had burns to his throat and lungs so the doctors induced a coma. After three or four months, they brought him up out of the coma but the pain in his lungs was too great and they put him under again. Three monthls later, he expired in coma.

This is an unfortunate woman and she'll be in my prayers.

[BnBlFlag]

"Sarkozy vows tough sentences"
Whatever.

[RRomo]

Tough punishment

No wine or cheese during their week in jail.

It does my heart good to see them french waking up in the bed that they have made

[Joe Boucher]

The french get tough?
Yeah and the russians are going to raise cows on the moon.
french pussies.

[Pontiac]

Five French teenagers have been arrested over the firebombing of the bus in the southern city of Marseille at the weekend.

Any guesses as to the ethnic origins of these teenagers. I noticed that it is not detailed in the article.

[Joe Boucher]

sort of like how our media fail to show blacks committing disproportionate criminal acts here in America?

[Zuben Elgenubi]

Dey R Utes

[agere_contra]

Sarkozy is France's last hope, except for a second Jeanne d'Arc