14 DAY TRIAL // Three hackers associated with the Anonymous movement are on trial in Paris, France, after hacking a French police union's website and dumping the data of 541 police officers online.
The incident took place in January 2012, when the three broke into the website of SGP-FO (Syndicat Général de la Police - Force Ouvrière), France's biggest police union.
The attack took down the site for days, and not long after their intrusion, the hackers also dumped the personal details of 541 French police officers online. The data included sensitive information, such as real names, telephone numbers, home and work email addresses.
The three hackers were eventually arrested and are now facing trial in a Paris court, where the local prosecutor has asked the judge for a one-year suspended prison sentence, along with a €5,000 ($5,500) fine for each.
Besides the prosecutor's demands, SGP-FO officers are also asking for €73,000 ($80,000) in damages.
France 24 reports that the hackers have pleaded guilty and are now awaiting their sentence ruling, scheduled for March 22, 2016.
The hackers justified the attack as being part of a payback campaign after French police had previously arrested other Anonymous members. Additionally, they also said the attack was also linked to a larger operation that was a protest against the US Department of Justice for taking down the famous file-sharing website Megaupload.