France’s Fast-Track Courts Are Taking Revenge on Suburbs That Rioted
Last week’s rioting in France saw over 3,600 arrests, including 1,100 minors. Courts are already handing out long jail sentences to supposed culprits — answering the political demand for vengeance even as the suburbs’ plight goes ignored.

Demonstration in Nanterre, west of Paris, against police violence, June 29, 2023. (Rona Lorimer)
It’s like a trophy wall. Éric Mathais, chief prosecutor in the Paris suburb of Bobigny, has been posting daily summaries of courtroom “results” to his LinkedIn page. His jurisdiction — like many others across France — is holding rapid trials for people arrested in the riots kicked off by the police killing of seventeen-year-old Nahel Merzouk in Nanterre on June 27.
This Tuesday alone, some nineteen individuals were tried in Bobigny, the main court in the Seine-Saint-Denis département north of Paris — an area that saw some of the most intense scenes of looting, property damage, and arson attacks. These trials were often conducted in fast-tracked hearings designed to mete out a swift penal response; critics argue it bends defendants’ rights to due process. Facing a body of evidence largely assembled by police investigators, defense attorneys often only receive their clients’ dossier the morning of the trial, leaving them just hours to prepare their case.
Of the nineteen riot-related defendants tried in Bobigny on Tuesday, three were acquitted, while one obtained a delay in proceedings. The other fifteen were convicted and handed punishments ranging from community service, suspended sentences under an electronic bracelet, and punitive fines all the way up to years-long prison sentences.