French MP convicted of raping niece

No other sitting MP had been tried by jury since 1958

A French MP has been convicted of repeatedly raping his niece when she was 12 years old.

Marc Dumoulin was sentenced by a Strasbourg court to five years in prison, stripped of political rights and ordered to pay damages of about $12,000.

Either he committed the facts and the punishment should be harsher, or he did not commit them and he should be acquitted

Lawyer for Dumoulin

But his lawyers said he would appeal - a process which will automatically suspend the sentence and leave Dumoulin at liberty.

The court in the eastern French city took less than two hours to reach its verdict after a trial which lasted three days.

It had heard how Dumoulin, the 51-year old deputy for the Bas-Rhin region, repeatedly sexually assaulted his niece while she stayed in his home during holidays in the mid-1980s.

Dumoulin's niece, now 29, pressed charges in 1998, saying she was shocked that a man like her uncle could be elected to parliament.

During his trial, the MP denied the rape charge but admitted "touching" her breast.

Sentence queried

Dumoulin also said he had twice slept in the same bed as his son and "woken up when (he) felt that (he) had touched his (son's) genitals".

As well as awarding the prison sentence, the court stripped him of family rights and his right to hold office or vote in elections for five years

But the chief judge said she was suspending the sentence because of the MP's parliamentary immunity and his right to appeal.

A lawyer for Dumoulin said he would "take the fight to a higher court" and he cast doubt on the conviction in view of the relative lightness of the sentence.

"Either he committed the facts and the punishment should be harsher, or he did not commit them and he should be acquitted," the lawyer said.