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The only surviving member of a group that raged in Paris in 2015 pleaded guilty on Wednesday to all charges, including murder and terrorism, and sentenced to life in prison, ending the largest criminal trial in modern French history.
The court found that Salah Abdeslam played a key role among the men who deployed explosives and assault rifles as they headed to the Bataklan concert venue, a national stadium and several restaurants and cafes on the night of November 13, 2015, killing 130 people and injuring hundreds. Islamic State later claimed responsibility for the bloodshed, the worst terrorist attack in France since World War II.
While public attention during the 10-month trial focused on Abdeslam, a Belgian-born French citizen, 19 other suspected perpetrators and accomplices were also charged. Five are believed to be dead and one is imprisoned in Turkey.
Nineteen of the 20 defendants were found guilty of all charges Wednesday, but their sentences were not announced immediately.
The court sentenced Abdeslam to the most severe form of life imprisonment under French law, an extremely rare sentence that would make parole almost impossible. It was not immediately clear whether he would appeal.
Prosecutors say Abdeslam abandoned his plans to kill passers-by only after his explosive vest was damaged. In court, he challenged the charge, saying he joined the commandos’ conspiracy in the final stages of his planning after his brother recruited him, but gave up using his explosive vest because he saw himself reflected in people. sitting in a cafe. He recalled a “moment of doubt” before exploding.
Abdeslam has already been found guilty of attempted murder and sentenced to 20 years in prison by a Belgian court in a separate trial focusing on his shootout with police as they tried to detain the fugitive in the months following the Paris attacks.
The French process was unprecedented in scale and highly symbolic. The victims were invited to participate as civic parties, and more than 2,500 plaintiffs were represented by hundreds of lawyers. Authorities built a customized courtroom to allow hundreds of survivors and relatives of the victims to monitor the trial in person or via video link from overflow rooms. Psychologists were available on site and through a hotline.
Hundreds of police set up barricades in front of the Ile de la Cité courthouse in central Paris and cut off large sections of the island when the accused were present.
During the 10 months, the court heard experts; officials, including former President Francois Hollande; survivors and witnesses. While the production was being recorded, access to the footage was limited – no plans to show it on television.
Sharon Weil, a law professor at the American University in Paris who focuses on terrorism, said the case was aimed at establishing criminal responsibility, but also giving victims space to “talk about their suffering.”
However, much remains unknown. Investigators tried to shed light on key details of the planning and execution of the attacks, and some defendants declined to answer detailed questions.
But Weil said the constant presence in the courtroom of victims or their relatives, who were sometimes directly involved with the suspects, generated a “strong exchange.”
Abdeslam had refused to answer questions during the Belgian trial and appeared to be in a fighting stance when the Paris trial began in September. Asked about his profession, he said he had given up all other jobs “to become an Islamic State fighter.”
During his testimony, he showed little remorse. “I support Islamic State. I am for them. I love them, “Abdeslam said months after the proceedings began, blaming” French and Western aggression “for the riots in Paris.
The victims and their representatives described his statements as “additional stab wounds” and as “hate speech”.
Yet this spring, Abdeslam appears to have changed his tone by repeatedly apologizing and “condolences” to the victims in tearful comments in court.
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