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Reuters
Reuters
World

France pledges tougher jail terms for police assailants

FILE PHOTO: French Prime Minister Jean Castex, wearing a protective face mask, attends the questions to the government session before a final vote on controversial climate change bill at the National Assembly in Paris, France, May 4, 2021. REUTERS/Sarah Meyssonnier

France plans tougher sentences for violent attacks on police, Prime Minister Jean Castex said on Monday, as the government responds to public outrage over two recent officers' killings.

Anyone receiving a life sentence for a serious crime against law enforcement will serve a 30-year mandatory jail term before any eligibility for parole, under the proposals unveiled after a meeting between Castex and police unions.

The announcement came as police said they had arrested two people over the shooting of an officer during a drugs bust in the city of Avignon last week.

That killing and the April murder of a police employee by a recently radicalised Islamist in Rambouillet, near Paris, have stoked public fears around crime and terrorism that already loom large over France's 2022 presidential election.

(Reporting by Laurence Frost and Jean-Stéphane Brosse; editing by Richard Pullin)

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