Two young adults were sentenced Monday, November 2 in Lyon to two years in prison, one of which was suspended for having written on the walls of a Lyon school on October 24, tags threatening a mayor and teachers with beheading.
The Lyon Criminal Court, which tried the two men aged 18 and 19 in immediate appearance, issued a warrant of committal at the hearing.
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In this case, a 16-year-old minor was indicted on Saturday by the children's judge and placed under arrest warrant.
These threatening inscriptions, discovered on the facade of the Philibert Delorme school group, were directed against the mayor of the district but also against the teachers and the pupils, in particular in these terms:
"the mayor of the 8th, we will behead you child of satan "
;
"We are going to behead the teachers and the students"
.
Prosecuted in particular for
"apologia for an act of terrorism"
and
"threat to commit a crime against a person holding public authority"
, they faced five years' imprisonment.
"A big mistake"
"We made a big mistake, it was the day I was arrested that I began to understand the seriousness and the link with the beheading of Samuel Paty"
, declared one of them at the bar. , assuring not to be aware of the attack of October 16 against the professor of Conflans-Sainte-Honorine (Yvelines) at the time of the facts.
The two young men, who denied any
"intention"
to justify terrorism, said they had acted under the coercion of
"an unscrupulous person" in
order to settle their debts to him, one in because of the loss of narcotics and the other after the degradation of a luxury garment.
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Debates were briefly interrupted after an incident.
The mother of an accused was caught filming the hearing with her smartphone.
The prosecutor had requested a two-year prison sentence including a five-month probationary period including the obligation to participate in a citizenship course.
"It is wrong to say that words are nothing and both could not ignore the violence of the words they peddled"
, lambasted the magistrate.
For one of the defense lawyers, Me Tammouz Al Douri, these tags are the
"resumption of a buzz"
linked to the threats of beheading against the mayor of Bron, a neighboring city of Lyon, and do not fall under
"d 'no apology'
.
His client insisted, in a press release issued by Me Al Douri, to express his
"deep and sincere apologies"
.
Emphasizing the
"immense political significance"
of their act even if they were
"not aware"
, Me Édouard Raffin, the lawyer for the mayor of the 8th arrondissement, who became a civil party, had demanded a symbolic euro of damages and interests.