France sentences over 700 to prison for protests

More than 700 people have been sentenced to prison over riots in France late last month, the country's justice minister has said, lauding the "firm" response of magistrates.

Wednesday's statement underlined that a total of 1,278 verdicts have been handed down, with over 95 percent of defendants convicted on a range of charges from vandalism to attacking police officers.

Six hundred people have already been jailed.

The most intense urban violence in France since 2005 began on June 27 after a police officer shot dead a 17-year-old boy with North African roots, Nahel Merzouk, during a traffic stop west of Paris, in an incident recorded by a passerby.

The riots were contained after four nights of serious clashes after the deployment of around 45,000 police forces, including elite police special forces and armoured vehicles.

3,700 people arrested was just 17

Dupond-Moretti had led calls for courts to hand down harsh sentences as a deterrent, with some staying open over the weekend of the clashes to handle a backlog of cases.

Many suspects faced immediate appearances and some defence lawyers have raised concerns about the fairness of the judicial process and the heavy use of custodial sentences.

The average age of the over 3,700 people arrested was just 17, with the minors appearing in separate children's courts.

The number of people sentenced to prison exceeds the number in 2005 at the time of the last major riots when around 400 people were sent to jail.