3 found guilty in Air France shirt-ripping trial

PARIS — Three former Air France employees on trial for ripping company executives’ shirts during a dispute over layoffs were found guilty on Wednesday in a case that highlighted the country’s fraught labor relations. They were given suspended prison sentences of three to four months over the attack in October 2015 that left one executive naked to the waist and another with his shirt and jacket in tatters. Appearing in court in northeast Paris, two others who faced the same charges of “organized violence” were acquitted. The company said the sentences “enable us to close this sad episode,” but lawyer Lilia Mhissen, acting on behalf of most of the defendants, said she would encourage them to appeal. Images of furious activists chasing down the executives at the airline’s headquarters on the edge of Paris made the front pages around the world when the confrontation took place. The protests were led by the hard-left CGT, France’s largest union, over the airline’s plans to cut 2,900 jobs. Ten other former and current employees from the company were fined 500 euros ($530) Wednesday for damaging the company’s property after they broke down a gate at the headquarters during the demonstration. — AFP