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French radical-left MP sentenced for domestic violence

Adrien Quatennens, a lawmaker (MP) in France's National Assembly, the parliamentary lower house,  and once a rising star of the  radical-left LFI party, has been handed a four-month suspended prison sentence and ordered to pay 2,000 euros in damages for physical and psychological violence directed against his estranged wife.

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Adrien Quatennens, a French Member of Parliament (MP) for the radical-left La France Insoumise (France Unbowed) party has received a four-month suspended prison sentence after being found guilty of domestic violence, reports Radio France Internationale.

Quatennens was given a four month suspended prison sentence for "violence without incapacity committed by a spouse" on dates between October and December 2021, as well as for sending "regular and malicious messages" to his wife between August and September 2022.

He has been ordered to pay 2,000 euros in damages.

An MP in Lille in the north of France and a rising figure of the far-left France Unbowed party (LFI), Quatennens admitted slapping his wife Céline in a moment of mutual aggression in September.

He acknowledged that the couple were in the throes of divorce at the time. 

His wife told French news agency AFP that she had suffered "physical and psychological violence" over "several years" from her husband, evoking "his anger" and "his crises".

LFI released a statement on Tuesday afternoon saying that Quatennens would be expelled from representing the LFI-NUPES alliance in parliament for the next four months.

His return to the Assembly would be dependent on his "commitment to follow a training course with feminist associations".

Read more of this report from RFI.