PARIS — A French court on Monday acquitted two police officers of charges that they had failed to prevent the electrocution of two teenagers in a suburb of Paris nearly 10 years ago, a tragedy that set off weeks of unrest and violent protests around the country.

The court in Rennes found that the police officers, Sébastien Gaillemin, 41, and Stéphanie Klein, 38, were not guilty of failing to assist a person in danger, a punishable offense under French law for which they were each facing up to five years in prison and a fine of 75,000 euros, or about $85,000.

The teenagers, Zyed Benna, 17, and Bouna Traoré, 15, were electrocuted after they hid in an electrical substation on Oct. 27, 2005, while running from the police in Clichy-sous-Bois, an impoverished suburb north of Paris. A third teenager survived with burns.

Mehdi Bigaderne, a spokesman for Aclefeu, an association created in Clichy-sous-Bois after the 2005 riots to advocate on behalf of disenfranchised suburbs, said the decision to acquit was not unexpected, but still disheartening.