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A man who was caught slapping a French woman in a CCTV footage earlier this year was sentenced Thursday to six months in prison, reports the BBC.
A 25-year-old man, identified only as Firaz M, was sentenced by a Paris court to a six-month suspended sentence and a $ 2,300 fine. He was also ordered to be psychologically treated, to take a class on gender-based violence and to stay away from the woman he harassed.
Prosecutors described M as "violent and impulsive," according to the BBC.
The video footage of a Parisian café captured the moment when Marie Laguerre, 22, landed on the street. Laguerre said that the man was making "obscene noises with a sexual overtone" as she walked home. She said when she told him to shut up, he threw an ashtray at her, then hit her in the face. CCTV images became viral and provoked international outrage after Laguerre posted them on Facebook in July.
The man was found guilty of "using or threatening violence", but the court stated that there was no sufficient reason to charge him with sexual harassment.
Laguerre, which has launched a website allowing women to share their experiences of harassment, told the French publication Libération that the decision was a "blow" and a disappointment.
"My attacker will not be able to understand the misogynistic and sexist nature of what he is accused of," she said, according to the BBC. "We fail to give him a lesson to make him understand that it's no longer possible to treat women as pieces of meat."
The case of Laguerre appeared while the #MeToo movement began to gain ground in France, where it is known as #BalanceTonPorc ("rat on your pig").
The video of the incident became viral amid France's efforts to crack down on street harassment. The government approved in August a new law allowing immediate fines of up to $ 860.
