The Besançon Court of Appeal confirmed Tuesday, December 15 the sentence to one year in prison including four months suspended sentence of the uncle and aunt of a young Bosnian Muslim girl, shaved because she was dating a young Christian Serbian .
Read also: A teenage girl shaved for dating a Christian
The penalty this time was accompanied by the obligation for the two defendants to follow a "
citizenship course
".
The two parents of the young woman, sentenced to the same sentence at first instance, had not appealed.
The victim's lawyer, Me Céline Party, expressed her satisfaction with this conviction on appeal.
"
We had confirmation of guilt, my client was indeed the victim of violence from the four adults
."
The victim, aged 17, had explained to investigators to have been molested in August by his parents, his uncle and his aunt, who accused him of seeing his friend, "
because of religion
".
Members of his family had refuted the religious motive at the trial hearing.
The teenager had told of having been shaved by her uncle.
"
When a young underage girl does a big mistake, her hair is cut, it's like a fine,
" the latter said at the hearing.
This affair, recalling the fate of thousands of women shaved at the Liberation for having had an affair with a German soldier under the Occupation, had aroused great emotion, in France and abroad.
The Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, considered that the accused had "
nothing to do on national soil
".
He said they would be taken back to the border as soon as the legal proceedings were over.
The parents of the girl and three of her siblings were effectively deported to Sarajevo the day after the trial in October.
The girl's uncle and aunt, protected by their status as political refugees in France, were not, however, expelled.
The young girl is taken care of by social assistance for children.