France: The Judiciary issues its rulings in the “Charlie Hebdo”

Wednesday’s ruling ends a three-month trial of 14 people in connection with three days of the bloody attacks in Paris, for which ISIS and al-Qaeda claimed responsibility. During the judicial process, France was exposed to a new wave of attacks and the accused was injured. Over them with the Corona virus.

While all three attackers were killed in police raids years ago, Hayat Boumediene, the widow of jihadist Amedi Coulibaly, fled to Syria and is believed to be still alive. The two men who helped her leave France and who were also tried in absentia are believed to have died. While the other eleven defendants attended the trial, which primarily revolves around who helped the attackers and how, according to the Associated Press.

On the other hand, the decision of the French court eliminated the terrorist status of 6 of the defendants, while the president of the court confirmed that the two brothers Said and Sherif Kouachi informed Coulibaly of the moment of the start of the terrorist attack. Mohamed Belhassen was found guilty of complicity in a terrorist offense and noted that Coulibaly also shot a policewoman 24 hours after the “Charlie Hebdo” attack. A day after the attack, French security forces killed him.

After hearings that lasted three months, the French judiciary issued its verdicts on Wednesday on 14 defendants suspected of supporting the masterminds of the 2015 jihadist attacks on the satirical newspaper “Charlie Hebdo” and a Jewish food store. . The Office of the Prosecutor requested severe sentences “commensurate with the extreme gravity of the events”, which could reach life imprisonment.

17 people, including 11 Charlie Hebdo journalists, were killed in the attacks. Although the prosecution chamber requested harsh penalties “commensurate with the extreme gravity of the events” that could lead to life imprisonment, the defense urged the court to avoid compensation “at all costs” for the absence of the Saeed brothers, Sherif Kouachi and Amidi Coulibaly. However, prosecutors noted that these three terrorists “are nothing” without the defendants who are currently on trial. They demanded prison sentences ranging from five years to life imprisonment, according to the agency “Agence France Presse”.

In their last words, on Monday, before the court began its deliberations after 54 days of discussion, the defendants, between 29 and 68 years old, who had a record but not for acts related to terrorism, affirmed that they had no ” nothing to do “with the attacks. The lawyers of the accused asked the court for five days “not to give in to fear” looking for “suspects at any cost” in an environment of great terrorist threat in the country.

Since the trial began on September 2, there have been three attacks in France, one of which targeted the former headquarters of the “Charlie Hebdo” newspaper. Defense attorney Zoe Royo said that in the face of the trauma of the attacks on January 7, 8 and 9, 2015, the response must be “exemplary justice, not bloody.”