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| Europe |
| Court sentences 4 men to prison for 2004 mosque burning in French Alps |
| 2006-12-11 |
| What's interesting is that when I first heard about the opening of the trial on teevee, it was just after an another segment in which CGT (paleo-commies union) thugs were on trial for having torched the regional HQ of the MEDEF (corporate CEO union)... and the asked sentences were suspended 4 months, all this while 4000 CGTinistas demonstrated outside, clamoring "justice shouldn't criminalize union actions" (because torching buildings during riots, excuse me, demonstrations, is a legitimate union tool, of course). SEVRIER, France: A court on Friday convicted three former soldiers and a soccer hooligan of fire-bombing a mosque and a Muslim prayer hall in the French Alps two years ago. The criminal court in the town of Sevrier, a suburb of eastern Annecy, handed down sentences of up to five years in prison for the four men, who are suspected of having ties to far-right groups. The men, all in their 20s, were convicted on charges of religiously motivated attacks that seriously damaged an Annecy mosque in March 2004 as well as a makeshift prayer hall in a garage in the Annecy suburb of Seynod. At the time, President Jacques Chirac condemned the attacks as "odious acts," and hundreds of people held a silent vigil in protest. Michel Guegan, a 25-year-old former soldier in France's elite Alpine unit who is now homeless, was given a five-year prison sentence for his role as the alleged ringleader. Nicolas Paz, 29, a former hooligan in a Paris Saint-Germain fan club, was also sentenced to five years in jail, with one year suspended. Anthony Savino, 24, another former soldier, was given five years, with two of them suspended. The fourth man, Damien Gallaud, 25, considered a "consenting follower," received a three-year sentence with two years suspended. A fifth man, 23-year-old former soldier Bruno Abello, received an eight-month suspended sentence for helping to cover up the crime. Before the ruling, the four main suspects expressed their regrets to the Muslim community. The sentences were lighter than that sought by Prosecutor Herve Lhomme, who had asked the court to send a "strong signal toward all havens of intolerance" with prison sentences of up to nine years. Btw, torched mosque was NOT a "real" mosque, it was a technical local of some sort, and was... under salafist control. |
| Posted by:anonymous5089 |
| #5 The MEDEF (ex CNPF, it was renamed in... 1993? 1995? to include entrepreneurship in its name, a tribute to "anglo-saxon"-type business) is the union of the "bosses of the bosses", IE representing mostly the french corporate world and its symbiosis with the statist frame of post-WWII France, not individual entrepreneurs (entrepreneur being a french word, by the way) and independent workers. It pursue the big business' interests, and is also involved in the gestion of the social system along with other "representative" syndicates (IE the one allowed by law to be the only interlocutors with the gvt, even if representating only 7% of french workers). |
| Posted by: anonymous5089 2006-12-11 13:05 |
| #4 the MEDEF (corporate CEO union) Even the CEOs have a union in France? On what basis -- do they jointly demand higher wages and reduced hours, like the labour unions? ;-) |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2006-12-11 12:55 |
| #3 They should have claimed mistaking that mosque for a synagogue. |
| Posted by: gromgoru 2006-12-11 11:52 |
| #2 What is wrong in France ? These fellows ahould have been awarded a Service medallion for good works to the state. I see nothing but dhimmitude across France, Belgium and now Britain. Very odious. What will it take to effect a change ? Total servitude ? |
| Posted by: SpecOp35 2006-12-11 11:48 |
| #1 Why not send this Guegan fellow, and maybe Savino too, to Afghanistan to serve out a reduced term of sentence 'Dirty Dozen style? He seems to know who the enemy is, and is not a coward, which does set him apart from the greater EU community. If he can just better focus his efforts we all benefit. |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2006-12-11 08:11 |