Sentence sought for veiled French woman who bit officer

A French prosecutor on Thursday sought a six-month suspended sentence for a teenager who sported the banned Islamic veil in public and bit a policewoman in July.

Louise-Marie Suisse, 18, turned up for the hearing in a full-body niqab but with her face uncovered, and wearing gloves.

Suisse was stopped by two police officers near a mosque in the centre of Marseille in late July.

She was wearing a full-face veil and refused to cooperate with them, when asked to produce identity papers. She eventually bit one of them.

At Thursday's hearing Suisse said she was "attacked" by the police, adding that "'they told me, take off this rubbish'". (...)