Paris: Nicolas Sarkozy said on Saturday repeat sex offenders should be sentenced to life in prison, a further sign that the French President is focusing his re-election campaign on law-and-order issues, three weeks before voting begins.
Sarkozy had already been stressing his hardline approach to crime following a killing spree by an Islamist gunman in Toulouse earlier this month that rattled the country.
Voter approval of his handling of that crisis has given his campaign much needed momentum in what has become a close first-round battle with Socialist frontrunner Francois Hollande.
On Saturday, Sarkozy told a Paris conference that society had a responsibility to stop serial rapists posing a threat after their release.
"I want repeated sexual crimes, judged within the same case, to be punished by life imprisonment instead of 20 years as it is today," Sarkozy told the conference organised by right-leaning victims` group, the Institute for Justice.
Paris: Nicolas Sarkozy said on Saturday repeat sex offenders should be sentenced to life in prison, a further sign that the French President is focusing his re-election campaign on law-and-order issues, three weeks before voting begins.
Sarkozy had already been stressing his hardline approach to crime following a killing spree by an Islamist gunman in Toulouse earlier this month that rattled the country.
Voter approval of his handling of that crisis has given his campaign much needed momentum in what has become a close first-round battle with Socialist frontrunner Francois Hollande.
On Saturday, Sarkozy told a Paris conference that society had a responsibility to stop serial rapists posing a threat after their release.
"I want repeated sexual crimes, judged within the same case, to be punished by life imprisonment instead of 20 years as it is today," Sarkozy told the conference organised by right-leaning victims` group, the Institute for Justice.
"The reality is that young people today bear no resemblance with young people after the (Second World) War."
He cited the case of four adolescents placed under investigation on Thursday on suspicion of shooting a 17-year-old over fears he would tell authorities about a burglary they are alleged to have committed.
The President is expected to unveil his full manifesto next week.
Bureau Report
