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French cemetery vandalized
Four accused youths and a 21-year-old tell police they were drunk at the time.
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published April 24, 2007
LE HAVRE, France - Officials filed preliminary charges Monday against five people suspected of vandalizing nearly 200 tombstones at a cemetery in northern France, judicial officials said. Police caught the suspects - four minors and a 21-year-old college student - in the act as they broke and painted tombstones in the Saint-Marie cemetery early Sunday. Police said 180 tombs were vandalized, including 44 in the Jewish section of the cemetery. Damage to many of the tombs was significant, police said. A passer-by happened upon the youths in the cemetery and alerted police. Officers detained the five. The youths said they were drunk at the time, police said. Under French law, preliminary charges mean that the investigating magistrates have determined that there is strong evidence to suggest involvement in a crime. It gives the magistrates time to pursue their investigation before they decide whether to send the suspects for trial or drop the case. Sunday's incident was the second case of graveyard vandalism in less than a week in France. Wednesday, vandals painted 52 gravestones in the Muslim section of a World War I cemetery with swastikas and other Nazi slogans. Three people have been detained in connection with the vandalism, in a northern city near Lens. Vandals also damaged dozens of graves in a Jewish section of a cemetery in Lille in northern France earlier this year.
[Last modified April 24, 2007, 01:11:47]
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