(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-10-13 09:25

New Orleans - A Louisiana teen-ager who spent more than nine months behind bars in connection with the "Jena Six" case is back in jail to complete his sentence in an earlier juvenile case, an official said on Friday.

A man holds up a painting of a noose and a suffering woman wrapped in a US flag as protesters march along Second Street in support of the 'Jena 6' in Jena, Louisiana, September 20, 2007. [Reuters]

Mychal Bell, 17, was taken into custody on Thursday night, said LaSalle Parish District Attorney J. Reed Walters.

He was given an 18-month sentence in a juvenile detention facility, according to the Alexandria, Louisiana, Town Talk newspaper.

Walters said Bell's sentence in juvenile court was postponed after he and five other black teen-agers were charged with attacking a white Jena, Louisiana, high school classmate in December 2006 after months of racially charged incidents in the central Louisiana town of 3,000.

"As I earlier pointed out, Mychal Bell had four dispositions, as they are known in Louisiana juvenile court, before the so-called Jena Six case occurred," Walters said in a statement.

Walters declined further comment on Bell's incarceration because juvenile cases are not public record under Louisiana law, as in most US states.

The Jena Six case drew national attention when Bell and four others were charged as adults with attempted murder. Another youth was too young to be charged as an adult.

Bell was convicted of a lesser assault charge, which was later overturned on appeal.

Tens of thousands of marchers including the Rev. Al Sharpton and the Rev. Jesse Jackson descended on Jena last month to protest what many said was excessive punishment of Bell.

He was released on $45,000 bail on September 27.

Two of Bell's attorneys, Carol Powell Lexing and Louis Scott, did not return calls on Friday.

In a statement, Sharpton said Bell's incarceration on Thursday was "cruel and unusual punishment and is a revenge by (district court judge J.P. Mauffray) for the Jena Six movement."

Racial tension at Jena High School had been simmering since August 2006, when a black student sat under a schoolyard tree where white students often gathered. Three white students were suspended for later hanging nooses from the tree.

Bell was the first of the six to face trial. He was convicted as an adult of aggravated second-degree battery.

Bell's attorneys appealed the decision, saying the case should have been heard in juvenile court. A Louisiana appeals court agreed.