De Gaulle grave vandal given suspended sentence
An unemployed man who vandalised the grave of former French resistance leader and president General Charles de Gaulle has been given a one-year suspended prison sentence and ordered to pay 8,000 euros of damages with interest.
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The 38-year-old, who is from Toulouse in south-west France and described as a bit of a dropout, was given a one-year suspended sentence and put on probation for two years.
The terms of his probation oblige him to compensate for the damage he caused to the grave in the cemetery in Colombey-les-Deux Eglises in eastern France.
Having admitted that he was blind drunk at the time of the incident, he must also seek medical care for alcoholism and complete a citizenship course.
After his arrest on Tuesday, the man confessed to breaking the large white cross on the grave the previous Saturday but said he could not remember much about the incident due to his advanced state of inebriation.
His motives have not been established and he regretted his behaviour, public proseuctor Frédéric Nahon said earlier this week.
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