[Onthebarricades] More on France repression

[Andy]

"When the judge read out the sentence, the youngest of the two defendants, a 15-year-old boy, shouted: "Why me?" The mother of one of the teenagers fainted."
Exactly - this is unmitigated state cruelty.  And they may try to get even longer sentences for further defendants later!

This can only be described as state terrorism, similar to that involved in the mass victimisation after the Bradford uprising.  An attempt is being made to push the envelope in repression.
http://africa.reuters.com/world/news/usnL28895095.html
French judge jails teens for arson attack on bus
Fri 28 Sep 2007, 17:24 GMT
 
[-] Text [+] MARSEILLE, France (Reuters) - A French judge sentenced two youths to eight years in prison on Friday for their part in an arson attack on a bus that left one passenger with burns covering nearly two thirds of her body.

When the judge read out the sentence, the youngest of the two defendants, a 15-year-old boy, shouted: "Why me?" The mother of one of the teenagers fainted.

A gang of eight youths attacked a bus in the southern port city of Marseille last October, spraying petrol on the seats and setting it ablaze as passengers tried to flee.

One passenger, Mama Galledou, a 26-year-old student from Senegal, caught fire and she spent months in hospital recovering from the severe burns which cover 62 percent of her body.

The six other defendants are due to stand trial later this year and risk up to 30 years in prison because they are slightly older than the two jailed on Friday.

The state prosecutor described the attack as a "commando operation" and had demanded 12-year terms for the first pair of defendants, who were not named by the court.

The Marseille assault followed a number of similar attacks on buses around Paris, as gangs marked the first anniversary of nationwide rioting in many of France's poor, ethnically-mixed neighbourhoods.

Marseille was hardly touched by the rioting and newspapers have quoted the arrested defendants as saying they wanted the same media attention as that given to the Paris arson attacks.
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