A French court on Wednesday sentenced to life the sole survivor of an Islamic squad that killed 130 people in a night of massacre in Paris, leaving survivors and some degree of closure in a country whose psyche has been damaged. – was disturbed.
Salah Abdeslam was found guilty of terrorism and murder charges, with no prospect of early release, the most severe criminal sentence possible in France and one had only been served four times before.
Nineteen other men judged to have helped organize the November 13, 2015 attacks, which targeted the Bataclan music hall, six bars and restaurants and the Stade de France sports stadium, were also found guilty.
“Justice has been served,” said Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo.
“Against inhumanity, it is the strength of our democracy to respond with justice to attacks that left our city and our country in mourning. Paris remembers and will always stand with the victims and their families.”
survivor response
Arthur Denouvo, a survivor of the Bataclan attack where 90 people were killed, called it a fair decision.
“It will help us,” Denouvo, the head of the victims’ union, told reporters. He added: “It’s not going to fix everything.”
A defiant Abdeslam said at the start of the trial that he was an “soldier” of the Islamic State, which has claimed responsibility for the attacks.
He later apologized to the victims and said during the trial that he had decided not to detonate his explosive jacket at the last minute. But, based on the investigation and hearing, the court ruled otherwise.
Judge Jean-Louis Perez said: “The court held that there was a defect in the explosive vest.” Abdeslam “is guilty of being a member of a terrorist network,” she also said.
The decision can be appealed and some lawyers for the accused indicated that they would do so. The 120-page text of the verdict will be made public on Thursday.
10-month trial
It has been a trial like no other, not only for its extraordinary duration of 10 months, but also dedicated to allowing victims to testify in detail about their ordeal and their struggle to recover from it, while also allowing the victims of those killed. The families talked about how difficult it was to move on.
Abdeslam was accompanied by thirteen other defendants, 10 of whom were also in custody, in the courtroom at the hearing.
The court found him guilty of crimes ranging from helping the attackers provide weapons or cars to planning to participate in the attack. Six more, tried in whose absence and presumed dead, were also found guilty.
Some of those judged in absentia were also sentenced to life imprisonment, as was Mohamed Abrini, the 10th member of the commando unit, until he withdrew a few days before the attacks. Unlike Abdeslam, Aberini would qualify for a possible early release after 22 years.
Other defendants were sentenced to less prison terms. Many will not go back to prison because the time spent in preventive custody will be deducted from their sentence.
“It’s important for the victims,” Katherine Szwark, the attorney representing some of the victims, said of the guilty verdicts.
But for some victims, the end of a long, intense trial stirred up some mixed feelings.
“There’s also a little bit of fear,” Denouvo told Reuters ahead of the verdict. The trial “filled our lives for the past 10 months and what will replace it? But we have overcome a terrorist attack, the post-trial emptiness will be easy to bridge.”