Sentences of three years' imprisonment suspended up to four years in prison were handed down on Friday by the Paris children's court against three defendants tried for separate plans for violent actions inspired by jihadism or neo-Nazism.
The three young people, coming from Hérault, Paris or Haut-Rhin, were 16-17 years old at the time of the events, and were arrested during 2021.
Among them, a young woman who has dropped out of school and whose plans are
"of unequaled seriousness before a children's court"
, indicated the president of the court during the public pronouncement of her decision, after three days of debates behind closed doors.
The court found her guilty of having participated in a group with a view to preparing acts of terrorism, including spotting targets and testing explosives, as well as having transferred Islamic State tutorials and of the ultra-right.
Taking into account the personal and family circumstances of this
“particularly neglected and abandoned teenager within her family”
and the educational institution, the court pronounced a sentence of four years of imprisonment with an obligation of socio-judicial monitoring for five years. .
Her lawyer, Me Dylan Slama, welcomed the fact that the court did not follow the prosecution, which had requested five years, considering the sentence handed down
“more adapted to the reality of the case and the personality”
of the young adult. .
Planning a killing spree on the anniversary of Adolf Hitler's death
The prosecution had also requested five years of imprisonment, including 18 months with suspended probation for one young man, and three years with suspended probation for another.
For the first, then a preparatory class student, the court noted that he was
“increasingly determined”
to leave for the Iraqi-Syrian zone to join terrorist organizations, and sentenced him to three years of imprisonment. including one with a probationary suspension for having encouraged two other people to leave.
The judgment,
“balanced”
according to his advisors, Mes Romain Boulet and Martin Vettes,
“demonstrates that justice has finally taken into account the vulnerability and fragility”
of the young man.
But it
“does not erase”
according to them
“the scandalous treatment which was reserved for him by the prison administration and which must be the subject of a global reflection by professionals on the treatment of the radicalization of minors in prison”
.
The second, who appeared free, was sentenced to three years with a simple suspended sentence, guilty according to the court of association of criminals of a terrorist nature, by looking for weapons and by mulling the plan of a school killing against the background of membership to ultra-right ideology.
There are
"particularly precise material elements"
, including
"the date of the act"
, in this case the anniversary of the death of Adolf Hitler, and the desire to find
"a media echo"
by planning film these actions, the court ruled.
He also noted
“the colossal work”
carried out by the young man since his arrest, which
“allows us to be reassured”
about his reintegration.
A second part of the case will be judged in March before the Paris criminal court.