Court finds 19 guilty over Paris attacks

• Published date: 30 June 2022

The attacks in Paris and St Denis on the night of Friday, November 13th, 2015, killed 130 and left more than 500 injured

Salah Abdeslam, the only survivor of the 10-member commando squad that detonated suicide vests, mowed down café-goers and wreaked terror in a concert hall over several hours, was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole by the special high criminal court comprising five judges.

The judges followed the prosecutor's recommendations in prescribing life without parole, an extremely rare sentence, for Abdeslam. His lawyers earlier described the punishment as a slow death sentence.

The prosecutor requested life in prison for half of the 20 defendants. The lightest sentence handed down was for two years.

Only 14 defendants were present in court. The other six, all members of the Islamic State terror group, were tried in absentia and are believed to have died in Syria.

Longest trial

The trial, which opened last September 8th, took place over 148 days, making it the longest in French judiciary history. Nearly 2,600 victims and relatives of victims were civil plaintiffs.

Nine jihadists armed with assault rifles and suicide vests attacked the Stade de France, six bars and restaurants and the Bataclan music hall.

In December 2020, 14 men were convicted of helping jihadists who killed 17 people at the Charlie Hebdo weekly and in a kosher supermarket in January 2015.

A trial related to the July 2016 truck attack that claimed 86 lives in Nice is due to begin in September.

Shortly after the latest trial started, Abdeslam defiantly described himself as a soldier of Islamic State, which claimed responsibility for the attacks...