French justice minister says 217 people jailed over riots

PARIS: French courts have jailed 217 people after convicting them in fast-track trials linked to last weekend's rioting, the justice minister said Thursday (Oct 22), hailing the judiciary's "extremely firm" response. Speaking outside the Fleury-Merogis prison on the outskirts of Paris, Gerald Darmanin said 2,700 people had been detained since Saturday.

More than 1,000 of them had appeared in court, he said, of whom "217 people have been imprisoned ... and this figure is continuing to rise a lot". Darmanin told reporters that of the 217 sent to jail "half had no criminal record", adding that "in general these are men aged between 18 to 25".

"This shows that prosecutors and judges are imprisoning people who, until now, were not known to the judiciary and are first offenders. It shows that the decisions of the judiciary are being applied in an extremely firm way." Darmanin has vowed to oversee expedited trials to rapidly clear the backlog of cases and to serve as a deterrent.

New protests over grievances including the rising cost of living are planned this weekend. But he has faced criticism from some lawyers who have accused the judiciary of lurching into repression. France, like many European countries, faces problems with prison overcrowding but Darmanin said the solution was not "to imprison fewer people, but to create more space in prison".

As of September 1, there were 90,020 inmates in French prisons, well above the capacity of 63,348 places and a new record, according to ministry statistics.