After a nine-month trial, 20 terrorists have been condemned for their roles in the 2015 Paris attack that left 130 people dead and hundreds more injured.
The sole survivor of the cell that attacked the Bataclan theater, Stade de France, and several Paris dining establishments, Salah Abdeslam, was convicted of murder in relation to a terrorist organization and has now been sentenced to life in prison without parole— the harshest sentence in the nation that eliminated capital punishment in 1981.
The penalty is a very uncommon event in the French judicial system with just four people ever sentenced under such measures. Still, the leniency of the French court offers one exception: after 30 years of jail time, the condemned is enabled to ask for an evaluation of his sentencing. Considering the viewpoints of the victims, the French public, specialists, and any progress of the criminal’s development towards rehabilitation, the court is empowered to remove the life imprisonment sentence.
Abdeslam served as the navigator and helped in the manufacture of bombs utilized throughout the attack, however, he was able to avert capture following the execution of the terrorists’ plot. Making it across the border and into Belgium, the terrorist was not captured until March of 2016– 126 days after the attack– when a raid performed by Belgian police landed him in custody.
Writing to a confidential interlocutor later on that year, the terrorist described that he is “not ashamed” of who he is however that he did not want to be treated as a “star or an idol” due to the fact that “the only one who deserves to be worshiped is Allah.”
With the danger of life in prison hanging over his head, nevertheless, Abdeslam changed his tone at his last appearance in court. He declared that listening to the accounts of suffering brought on by his actions had actually changed him. “I have made mistakes, it’s true, but I am not a murderer, I am not a killer,” he said.
Another man, Mohamed Abrini, was sentenced to life in prison with a possibility for parole after 22 years of imprisonment.
The other suspects who were condemned in this case primarily functioned in a logistical role or in the aftermath of that attack. These guys assisted with transporting the terrorists, forging paperwork, obtaining phones, and funding.
Some of the men convicted were sentenced to a suspended sentences with time served.
H/T Timcast
