Fifteen people were yesterday to go on trial over rowdy scenes a year ago in which an Air France executive had his shirt shredded as he fled a mob of workers angry over planned job cuts.
Images of the incident in France hit screens around the world, showing bare-chested human resources chief Xavier Broseta trying to scale a fence after being chased out of a meeting about restructuring proposals at the troubled airline.
Another executive, Pierre Plissonnier, also had his shirt and jacket ripped in the incident on Oct. 5 last year, which arose from a dispute over the aviation giant’s plans to cut 2,900 jobs.
After crashing through the fence outside Air France headquarters on the outskirts of Paris, dozens of workers had broken into the conference room where management was unveiling the restructuring plan to the firm’s works committee.
Some company guards were also injured in the melee.
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said the men, whom he branded “rogues,” should be dealt stiff sentences.
Five of the defendants face charges of “organized violence,” punishable by up to three years in prison and a 45,000 euro (US$50,630) fine if convicted.
Another 10 face lesser charges in the two-day trial.
Air France unions have called for a strike and a rally outside the court yesterday demanding that the charges be thrown out.
The hardline CGT trade union, which spearheaded sometimes violent protests seen this year against France’s controversial labor law, was also to lead yesterday’s rally.
Air France lawyer Dominique Mondoloni said the defense would seek to “transform the perpetrators [of the violence] into victims and the victims into perpetrators.”
“Air France will be there to support workers and reiterate that violence can never become a way to resolve labor disputes,” Mondoloni told reporters.
The defendants’ lawyer, Lilia Mhissen, said she hoped the her clients would “not be judged on the basis of video clips that last a fraction of a second,” but on the bigger picture.
At least two of them “clearly acted to protect Mr Broseta and Mr Plissonnier,” she said. “If they had retrieved all of the video images ... the story would have been different.”
Air France, which employs about 55,000 people, has scrapped the restructuring plan, but still faces tensions with pilots and flight crews that staged strikes in late July.
Air France-KLM returned to profit last year after seven years of losses, but faces stiff competition from Asian and Persian Gulf airlines, as well as new low-cost long-haul alternatives.
The airline also faces a downturn in bookings, notably by Japanese, Chinese and US customers, because of the string of extremist attacks that have hit France over the past 21 months.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of