הניצול היחיד מההתחשמלות המקרית של שלושה בני נוער, שעוררה את המהומות הקשות ביותר בצרפת זה יותר מ 40 שנים, נעצר ביום שלישי עת מהומות חדשות פרצו בפרברי פריז במשך לילה שני ברציפות.
New riots erupt in suburbs of Paris
SUSAN BELL IN PARIS
THE sole survivor of last autumn's accidental electrocution of three youths, which triggered the worst rioting in France for more than 40 years, was arrested on Tuesday as fresh riots broke out in Parisian suburbs for the second night running.
Muhittin Altun, 18, was arrested on the eve of a judicial reconstruction of the controversial incident in which his two friends, also youths of African origin, were killed last October after taking refuge in an electricity sub-station in the deprived suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois, ten miles east of central Paris.
Mr Altun, who was seriously injured in the incident, said he and his friends, Bouna Traore, 15, and Zyed Benna, 17, scrambled up the high-security fence around the sub-station because they were being chased by police, a version of events which has been denied by the authorities.
Nicolas Sarkozy, the interior minister, opened a judicial investigation into the incident, which provoked three weeks of unrest across France as youths, many of African origin, clashed with police and burned cars and buildings in the country's deprived suburbs to show their anger over alleged discrimination and police harassment.
Mr Altun had been due to participate in yesterday's judicial reconstruction of the events surrounding the electrocution incident when he was arrested along with 12 others during rioting in Clichy-sous-Bois and Montfermeil.
His lawyer, Jean-Pierre Mignard, contested police claims that Mr Altun had been involved in Tuesday night's unrest.
"He was downstairs in front of his home ... he wasn't where the violence was taking place," Mr Mignard told Europe 1 radio yesterday. "Why, on the day before an important judicial meeting ... was he arrested? I see a miraculous coincidence there," he added.
In two nights of rioting, nine police officers were injured, five vehicles were set alight and three people were arrested. According to police, the new wave of riots were triggered by the arrest of a youth suspected of assaulting a bus driver.
Mr Sarkozy condemned the violence. He has called for a change in the law to make it easier to clamp down on juvenile offenders.
The opposition leader, Socialist party secretary François Hollande, blamed Mr Sarkozy for the renewed outbreak of urban unrest. "He comes to the suburbs and he announces commitments from the state which never arrive. He encourages ... the police. But he stigmatises a number of young people. He does nothing to calm the situation," he said.
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