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CRIME

Romanian 12-year-old spends two weeks in jail

A Paris court sent a Romanian boy to jail this summer after the authorities failed to realize he was just 12 years old.

Initially a Paris children's court received ID papers suggesting the boy was 14 years old. He was convicted of violent theft and was fined, avoiding a two-month jail term because of his young age.

However, he was arrested a second time this summer, daily Le Parisien reports. This time the boy produced different ID documents which suggested he was 15. As a result, the authorities were free to send him to prison to serve his first jail sentence.

On July 1st the Romanian boy was imprisoned in Fleury-Merogis Prison, the largest jail in Europe.

However, the French branch of the International Observatory of Prisons (IOP) opposed the sentencing and appealed to the Citizens Rights watchdog, which ordered a medical examination of the boy to determine his age.

Doctors examined the boy and estimated he was 13 to 14 years old. Ultimately an investigation conducted jointly by French and Romanian authorities concluded beyond doubt that the boy was born in 2000 and was in fact a mere 12 years old.

"If they are not sure about the age of a suspect, they should always pick the lowest age," said François Bès, an IOP official in an interview with Le Parisien.

The Romanian boy spent two weeks in prison before he was released.

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CRIME

France blocks fake Ukraine war recruitment website

French authorities have uncovered a website for a fake recruitment drive purportedly seeking French volunteers to fight for Ukraine against the Russian invasion, the defence ministry said on Thursday.

France blocks fake Ukraine war recruitment website

The site has now been taken down by French services, a government source, who asked not to be named, told AFP without elaborating.

The site had said that 200,000 French people were invited to “enlist in Ukraine”, with immigrants given priority.

A link to the site – that resembled the French army’s genuine recruitment portal – had been posted on X, formerly Twitter, the French defence ministry said.

“The site is a fake government site,” the ministry said, also on X, “and has been reposted by malevolent accounts as part of a disinformation campaign”.

The ministry did not say who they thought might be responsible. But a source close to the government told AFP initial evidence pointed to communications operations linked to Russian mercenary group Wagner.

“The accounts used and the technical data behind them, these are the people we know”, the source said.

“These people are still there and remain very focused on Ukraine. The subject of the French army is something that annoys them a lot.”

Separately, a government official speaking on condition of anonymity said the site bore “the hallmarks of a Russian or pro-Russian effort as part of a disinformation campaign claiming that the French army is preparing to send troops to Ukraine”.

French President Emmanuel Macron angered the Russian leadership last month by hardening his tone on the conflict sparked by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

In recent weeks he has refused to rule out sending ground troops and insisted that Europe has to do all that is necessary for a Russian defeat.

France has already accused Russia of waging a disinformation campaign against it.

The official told AFP that similar recent examples of disinformation posts included pictures of French army convoys wrongly presented as moving towards the Ukrainian border.

The fake website invited potential recruits to contact “unit commander Paul” for information about joining.

The defence ministry and government cyber units are investigating, ministry staff told AFP.

The French government has recently stepped up efforts to denounce and fight what it says are Russian disinformation and destabilisation campaigns aimed at undermining French public support for Ukraine in its war against Russia.

“Russia is asserting itself as the most aggressive player in the information field,” Marc-Antoine Brillant, the head of Viginum, an agency mandated to detect digital disinformation campaigns, said in an interview with French daily Le Figaro.

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