French woman gets suspended sentence for veil attack

PARIS // A Paris court has given a retired French teacher a one-month suspended sentence for attacking an Emirati woman because she was wearing a face-covering veil.

The court on Thursday also ordered the retired teacher, Jeanne Ruby, to pay ($1,140) in damages to the victim, a citizen of the UAE.

Ruby had been charged with "aggravated violence," and the prosecutor in the case had asked that she be given a two-month suspended sentence.

The incident took place in February in a Paris home decor store, when Ruby bit, slapped and scratched the Emirati woman.

In a recent interview with Le Parisien newspaper, Ruby compared the niqab to a "muzzle" and said she didn't mean to harm the woman, but just wanted to pull the veil off.