Suspended jail for French mother over son's 9/11 T-shirt
AFP September 21, 2013, 12:28 am
NIMES, France (AFP) - A French mother who sent her three-year-old son to school in a T-shirt reading "I am a bomb" and "Jihad, born on September 11" was given a suspended prison term Friday for defending crime.
Bouchra Bagour said she had simply wanted to mark the birthday of her son -- who is named Jihad and was born on September 11 -- and had not intended any connection with the 9/11 attacks in the United States in 2001.
She was acquitted in April by another court on charges of defending terrorism, but prosecutors had appealed the decision.
On Friday, an appeal court in the southern city of Nimes reversed the ruling, fining Bagour 2,000 euros ($2,700) and giving her a suspended one-month jail term.
Her brother Zeyad, who gave his nephew the T-shirt, was fined 4,000 euros and given a two-month suspended prison sentence.
Bagour, 35 at the time of the first ruling, had admitted to court that sending her child to school wearing the T-shirt had been "tactless", but insisted it was not meant as a provocation.
Her brother Zeyad, 29 at the time, told the court: "We were never trying to claim responsibility for this thing or defend a cause."
The lawyer for the pair said Friday the decision was "harsh and surprising", adding that she would consider sending the case to the Paris-based Supreme Court for final arbitration.
('Je suis une bombe - I am a bomb' : Screengrab BFMTV)
