French police officers stand next to the grave of former French Justice Minister Robert Badinter, which had been vandalized a few hours before its moving to the Pantheon, at the Bagneux cemetery in Bagneux, near Paris, October 9, 2025. THOMAS SAMSON / AFP
A French court on Wednesday, December 3, sentenced an engineering student from a prestigious post-grad school to a suspended term of one year in jail over desecrating the tomb of Robert Badinter, a former justice minister who ended the death penalty in France in 1981.
The incident occurred just hours before Badinter, whose legacy also included decriminalizing homosexuality, was to symbolically enter the country's Pantheon mausoleum of outstanding historical figures.
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Robert Badinter inducted into France's Panthéon in solemn, moving ceremony
