- A young French woman who admitted to lying about being
the victim of an anti-Semitic attack was convicted Monday for fabricating
a story that stunned France.
-
- Marie-Leonie Leblanc, 22, was handed a four-month suspended
sentence, ordered to receive counseling and put under probation for two
years at the trial in Pontoise, north of Paris.
-
- Defense lawyers and her mother have described the woman
as psychologically fragile and deeply sorry for her lie, which created
an uproar in France as the government is trying to combat a rise in anti-Semitic
and other hate crimes.
-
- "I wanted people to look after me," a pale
Leblanc, dressed in jeans and a white sweatshirt, told a magistrate's court
in the northwest Paris suburb. "I wanted my parents and [my partner]
Christophe to look after me."
-
- Asked by a civil party's lawyer why she had blamed the
invented attack on youths of Arab or African origin, Leblanc said: "When
I watch TV, they're always the ones who get blamed."
-
- A public prosecutor explained how she invented the attack,
cut off part of her hair and drew swastikas on her body.
-
- Police said she had previously reported imaginary attacks
on herself and a psychiatrist who examined her earlier this month said
she had a very strong need to be acknowledged "no matter what the
price".
-
- The woman claimed she was robbed on a suburban Paris
train earlier this month by a knife-wielding gang that mistook her for
a Jew and scrawled swastikas on her body.
-
- President Jacques Chirac reacted immediately, calling
the alleged attack a "shameful act."
-
- But police found no clues or witnesses. After learning
the woman had a history of lying and filing complaints about assaults that
were never proved, she was detained for questioning.
-
- In a search of her home in the suburb of Aubervilliers,
police found the marker she had used to draw swastikas on her body and
other evidence. The woman subsequently went on national TV to issue a public
apology.
-
- "I offer my apologies to the president ... and people
who demonstrated their support for my lie," she said on France-3 television
last weekend, with her back to the camera. "I regret this act and
I ask for forgiveness to those I deceived and hurt."
-
- Earlier Monday, a prosecutor recommended a slightly tougher
penalty: a six-month suspended sentence, a 2,000 euro ($2,430) fine and
counseling.
-
- http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/456367.html
|
