Thirty years of imprisonment were requested on Friday before the Paris Special Assize Court against Youssef Tihlah who apologized to the police officers he injured in a car-ramming attack in Colombes (Hauts-de-Seine) in April 2020.
“I am sorry for having inflicted this suffering (...) I think about it every night before sleeping,”
assured Youssef Tihlah, 33, in the dock, on trial since Monday for attempts to assassination of persons holding public authority in relation to a terrorist enterprise.
In her indictment, Attorney General Marine Valentin insisted on the
attacker's
"intention"
to "place his attack in a terrorist dimension"
, stressing that he had adopted
"jihadist rhetoric"
until the
"last day of the hearing
.
She requested against the accused a sentence of 30 years of criminal imprisonment, accompanied by a two-thirds security period,
“taking into account the seriousness of the acts committed”
as well as his personality.
“He considers himself a fighter who fought soldiers”
“30 years required is too much,”
argued one of the defense lawyers, Me Fares Aidel.
“I don't believe that there are any fair sentences, I think that there are sentences that make more sense than others.
The one requested by the Attorney General is not one of them
,” he insisted, comparing the required sentence to
“a grave for Youssef Tihlah
. ”
“It’s true that I still have a way to go, but I would like you to give me the opportunity to show that I have changed
,” concluded the accused before the start of the deliberations.
“More than a year later, he was still incapable of condemning terrorist acts (...).
He considers himself a fighter who fought soldiers
,” argued the representative of the prosecution.
On April 27, 2020, in full confinement due to Covid-19 and during the Ramadan period, Youssef Tihlah spotted police officers from his car on the way to a bakery in Colombes.
He decides to pass through the street again and rushes towards them at full speed, hitting two national police motorcyclists, without helmets, who are checking a vehicle.
In his car, a letter of claim and allegiance to the jihadist group Islamic State, written on the back of an exceptional travel certificate, and two knives.
One of them was purchased a few days before the incident, which, according to investigators, corroborates the theory of a carefully prepared project.
“Physical and psychological after-effects” for bikers
A version shared by the general advocate who insisted on Youssef Tihlah's intention to act
"during Ramadan to reinforce the symbolic dimension of his act (...) and against police officers because they are symbols of the Republic"
.
A hypothesis contradicted by the defense.
“When he decides at the last moment to accelerate, nothing is planned, nothing is anticipated.
He has no idea what he is going to do
,” argued Me Manon Debbah, one of the defense lawyers.
The two bikers had been hospitalized with several fractures and trauma, particularly to the legs, and are still suffering today from
“physical and psychological after-effects”
, according to their lawyer Daniel Bernfeld.
Four municipal police officers on site were also prescribed total incapacity for work, some of which exceeded 90 days, due to the psychological trauma they had suffered.
The verdict is expected during the day.