French court hands prison sentences to 6 police officers over racist slurs while arresting Egyptian

CAIRO - 7 January 2021: A French court in Bobigny handed six police officers prison sentences ranging from 6 to 12 months over violence and racist insults while arresting an Egyptian in 2020, according to local reports on Thursday.

The police officers were convicted of insulting a 29-year-old Egyptian in Paris in April 2020 but the lawyer of one of the officers said he will appeal the ruling.

During the incident, the police arrested the Egyptian man on suspicion that he stole equipment from a construction building and then threw himself into the Seine, according to police reports.

A police officer who at the time described the Egyptian suspect as a “little goat who cannot swim” received a six-month suspended prison sentence.