PARIS: The father of the little boy who was rescued dangling from a fourth-story Paris balcony by a Malian migrant dubbed Spiderman received a three-month suspended jail sentence Tuesday for leaving the child home alone.
Mamoudou Gassama was propelled to global stardom in May after footage of him scaling the facade of the apartment building with his bare hands to save the child went viral.
Gassama, who was living illegally in France at the time, was rewarded with French citizenship and a job in the fire service.
But the 37-year-old father found himself in hot water for leaving the child unattended in their sixth-floor apartment while he went shopping — the boy was just four at the time.
Apart from the suspended sentence he was also ordered to take a parenting course.
The public prosecutor had asked for the father to be given a six-month suspended sentence, noting that had Gassama not sprung into action the child “might now be dead.”
The father told the court that after spending the day at the Disneyland theme park near Paris with his son on May 26, he decided to pop out for some provisions, leaving his son in front of the TV at his insistence.
Expressing remorse he said he had not realized that by leaving the sliding door to the balcony open the child was in grave danger.
He also admitted to being gone longer than he thought — around an hour — because he was playing the popular Pokemon Go game on his phone.
The child told the police he thought his father had gone back to Disneyland without him and decided to follow him.
Finding the apartment door locked he climbed over the balcony and then appears to have fallen, before miraculously managing to grab the rail of a balcony on the fourth floor.
Footage of the incident, filmed by a bystander, shows him dangling in mid-air with a neighbor on the adjoining balcony desperately trying to hold onto him.
Gassama, 22, then scales the building Spiderman-style and pulls him to safety.
Under France’s penal code parental negligence carries a maximum penalty of two years in prison and a fine of up to 30,000 euros ($35,300).
The boy’s mother was on a visit to her native Reunion island, a French territory in the Indian Ocean, at the time.
Both parents were said at the time to be extremely shaken by the incident but hugely grateful to Gassama.
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Father of boy saved by Paris ‘Spiderman’ convicted of negligence
Father of boy saved by Paris ‘Spiderman’ convicted of negligence
- Mamoudou Gassama was propelled to global stardom in May after footage of him scaling the facade of the apartment building with his bare hands to save the child went viral
- The 37-year-old father found himself in hot water for leaving the child unattended in their sixth-floor apartment while he went shopping
Japan’s beloved last pandas leave for China as ties fray
TOKYO: Two popular pandas are set to leave Tokyo for China Tuesday, leaving Japan without any of the beloved bears for the first time in 50 years as ties between the Asian neighbors fray.
Panda twins Lei Lei and Xiao Xiao are due to be transported by truck out of Ueno Zoological Gardens, their birthplace, disappointing many Japanese fans who have grown attached to the furry four-year-olds.
“Although I can’t see them, I came to share the same air with them and to say, ‘Hope you’ll be OK,’” one woman visiting the zoo told public broadcaster NHK.
The pandas’ abrupt return was announced last month during a diplomatic spat that began when Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi hinted that Tokyo could intervene militarily in the event of an attack on Taiwan.
Her comment provoked the ire of Beijing, which regards the island as its own territory.
The distinctive black-and-white animals, loaned out as part of China’s “panda diplomacy,” have symbolized friendship between Beijing and Tokyo since they normalized diplomatic ties in 1972.
Their repatriation comes a month before their loan period expires in February, according to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, which operates Ueno Zoo.
Japan has reportedly been seeking the loan of a new pair of pandas.
However, a weekend poll by the liberal Asahi Shimbun newspaper showed that 70 percent of those surveyed do not think the government should negotiate with China on the lease of new pandas, while 26 percent would like them to.
On Sunday, Ueno Zoo invited some 4,400 lucky winners of an online lottery to see the pandas for the last time.
Passionate fans without tickets still turned out at the park, sporting panda-themed shirts, bags and dolls to demonstrate their love of the animals.
China has discouraged its nationals from traveling to Japan, citing deteriorating public security and criminal acts against Chinese nationals in the country.
Beijing is reportedly also choking off exports to Japan of rare-earth products crucial for making everything from electric cars to missiles.
However, China routinely removes pandas from foreign countries and the latest move may not be politically motivated, said Masaki Ienaga, a professor at Tokyo Woman’s Christian University and an expert in East Asian international relations.
“If you talk about (Chinese) politics, the timing of sending pandas is what counts,” and pandas could return to Japan if bilateral ties warm, he said.
Other countries use animals as tools of diplomacy, including Thailand with its elephants and Australia with its koalas, he added.
“But pandas are special,” he said. “They have strong customer-drawing power, and... they can earn money.”
kh/aph/mjw
Panda twins Lei Lei and Xiao Xiao are due to be transported by truck out of Ueno Zoological Gardens, their birthplace, disappointing many Japanese fans who have grown attached to the furry four-year-olds.
“Although I can’t see them, I came to share the same air with them and to say, ‘Hope you’ll be OK,’” one woman visiting the zoo told public broadcaster NHK.
The pandas’ abrupt return was announced last month during a diplomatic spat that began when Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi hinted that Tokyo could intervene militarily in the event of an attack on Taiwan.
Her comment provoked the ire of Beijing, which regards the island as its own territory.
The distinctive black-and-white animals, loaned out as part of China’s “panda diplomacy,” have symbolized friendship between Beijing and Tokyo since they normalized diplomatic ties in 1972.
Their repatriation comes a month before their loan period expires in February, according to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, which operates Ueno Zoo.
Japan has reportedly been seeking the loan of a new pair of pandas.
However, a weekend poll by the liberal Asahi Shimbun newspaper showed that 70 percent of those surveyed do not think the government should negotiate with China on the lease of new pandas, while 26 percent would like them to.
On Sunday, Ueno Zoo invited some 4,400 lucky winners of an online lottery to see the pandas for the last time.
Passionate fans without tickets still turned out at the park, sporting panda-themed shirts, bags and dolls to demonstrate their love of the animals.
China has discouraged its nationals from traveling to Japan, citing deteriorating public security and criminal acts against Chinese nationals in the country.
Beijing is reportedly also choking off exports to Japan of rare-earth products crucial for making everything from electric cars to missiles.
However, China routinely removes pandas from foreign countries and the latest move may not be politically motivated, said Masaki Ienaga, a professor at Tokyo Woman’s Christian University and an expert in East Asian international relations.
“If you talk about (Chinese) politics, the timing of sending pandas is what counts,” and pandas could return to Japan if bilateral ties warm, he said.
Other countries use animals as tools of diplomacy, including Thailand with its elephants and Australia with its koalas, he added.
“But pandas are special,” he said. “They have strong customer-drawing power, and... they can earn money.”
kh/aph/mjw
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