France probes riot blogs
2005-11-09 21:18
Paris - Two teenage boys were placed under investigation on Tuesday for inciting violence by using their blogs to urge others to join the rioting that is raging in the country, judicial officials said.
The two, a French national aged 16 and an 18-year-old Ghanaian national come from the Seine-Saint-Denis region northeast of Paris where the violence first broke out on October 27.
They have been placed under judicial investigation, the first step to formal charges, for "provoking wilful damage to property that poses a danger to people, via the internet".
Both have been released from custody but remain under court supervision.
A third youth, aged 14, from the southeastern city of Aix-en-Provence, has been released without charge for procedural reasons.
All three youths, who did not know one another, had hosted their blogs on a site owned by a youth radio station, Skyrock.
On one of them, a message called on people living in the greater Paris area to "Unite, burn all the cops. Go to your local police station and set it on fire", according to police.
Another called on "all the 'hoods that want to get moving: burn everything up on Friday between 21:30 and 22:00".
Police have said that those responsible for the unrest rocking France have become increasingly organised, using mobile telephones to monitor police movements along with text messaging and the internet to communicate their plans.