Court orders squatters out of Paris mansion

PARIS: A French court on Jan 18 ordered a group of young squatters to quit a 17th century mansion they are occupying in one of Paris's most picturesque squares.

Students and activists moved into the exclusive Place des Vosges residence at the end of last October to highlight the city's many housing problems, with thousands of properties lying vacant and rents often too high for the poorly paid.

The house was built by an advisor to King Louis XIII some 400 years ago and was the home to generations of wealthy Parisians, including the Marquise de Sevigne, a 17th century aristocrat and celebrated writer.

Its present owner is a frail, 87-year-old woman who has not lived there for years and does not have the money to maintain it.

However, her lawyers say the house remains her primary residence and persuaded a court on Jan 18 to evict the squatters, arguing that their presence in the vast, abandoned property was causing their client immense distress.

The lawyers sought €140,000 (RM673,500) in damages, but the panel of judges said the intruders should pay just 10,000 euros. However, they said this would jump to more than 75,000 euros if the youths were not gone within eight days.

The squatters belong to a group known as Black Thursday -- so called because that is the day Paris's main classified ads newspaper hits the streets.

Their lawyer, Pascal Winter, promised to appeal against the ruling, saying that under the law, everyone in France had the right to a roof over their head.

Paris city hall, which is governed by the Socialist party, had called on the court to treat the squatters leniently.

A leading French charity, the Abbe Pierre Foundation, estimates that 100,000 people sleep rough in the streets in France with a further 493,000 people in a precarious position and without any home of their own.