“What is the shortest way between a holiday and prison? American Airlines,” said a tired-looking Franck Moulet after stepping off a plane at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris.

 The 27-year-old student admitted to a New York district court that he had made a false statement in making the bomb claim. All other charges, which could have put him in prison for seven years, were dropped following his confession.

Moulet, from Bouches-du-Rhone department in southern France, was questioned by a steward on an American Airlines flight from Santo Domingo on January 10 about why he had been locked in the restroom so long.

He is alleged to have said that a bomb he placed there had not gone off.

Moulet was arrested when the plane landed at New York’s John F. Kennedy airport and was later detained in the city’s Rykers Island prison.

The New York court fined him USD 690 (EUR 550) and ordered his release.

Moulet read a brief statement when he arrived Friday in Paris thanking his family, his lawyer and local officials for their help in securing his release. Of his time in the New York prison he said only that he had been able to sleep just 10 hours in 20 days.

© AFP

                                                              Subject: France news