LENIENT SENTENCES TO FRENCH SOLDIERS
WHO STOLE MONEY FROM AFRICA
France
's Justice Ministry will seek to appeal against
"lenient" sentences handed down to 12
peacekeepers who robbed a bank in
Ivory Coast
.
Justice Minister Pascal Clement
told French radio she had been asked to act by the
defence minister.
The troops were sentenced to
between two months and a year each in prison by a
military court in
Paris
.
They were supposed to be guarding
the bank in the western town of
Man
and stole the equivalent of about $400,000.
Some 4,000 French peacekeepers
are in
Ivory Coast
, monitoring a buffer zone between rebel forces in the
north and the loyalist south.
"Given the facts, the
sentences are insufficient", Defence Minister
Michele Alliot-Marie had said.
Some of the soldiers allegedly
bought digital cameras and mobile phones with the
money and sent them to their families in
France
.
They are also alleged to have
hidden bundles of notes in hollow statuettes made for
the purpose.
The father of one of the French
soldiers has also been charged with receiving stolen
goods.
Six other French soldiers have
been accused of stealing nearly $20,000 worth of CFA
francs from another branch of the Central Bank of West
African States (BCEAO) in the rebel headquarters of
Bouake
last year.
They are expected to stand trial
later this year. |
