The French Interior Ministry reported on the success of its fight against recent racial riots: 1.3 thousand sentences were passed, 1,056 people were sentenced to imprisonment, 742 of them - to long prison terms.
Urban riots are commonplace in France, but even the results of larger-scale protests 20 years ago resulted in 6 times fewer convictions. Citizens were outraged, for example, when a rioter was sentenced to 10 months in prison for stealing a can of energy drink.
