At the end of three months of hearings, the Special Assize Court of Paris delivered this Wednesday its deliberation to the trial of 14 alleged supporters of the perpetrators of the January 2015 attacks against Charlie Hebdo and Hyper Cacher.
Ali Riza Polat, presented as the "centerpiece" of the preparatory acts, was found guilty of "complicity in terrorist crimes" and sentenced to thirty years in prison.
Hayat Boumeddiene, the fugitive partner of Amedy Coulibaly, was convicted of criminal conspiracy and terrorist financing and sentenced to 30 years in prison, in accordance with the requisitions of the public prosecutor.
Sentences ranging from 4 years in prison to life imprisonment were retained for the other defendants.
The court also ruled out the terrorist qualification for six of the eleven defendants.
They were suspected of having provided weapons or material "with full knowledge of the jihadist engagement" of the perpetrators of the attacks, according to the attorneys general.
They are declared guilty of common law criminal association.
From five to twenty years in prison had been requested against.
Monday, before the court withdrew to deliberate after 54 days of debate, these men aged 29 to 68, all already convicted of crimes but never for acts related to terrorism, had again affirmed to have "nothing to do ”with the attacks.
READ ALSO>
Trial of the 2015 attacks: the regrets of a lawyer over three months of an extraordinary hearing
200 civil parties
While the prosecution had asked for sentences "at the height of the extreme gravity of the facts", going up to life imprisonment, the defense had urged the court not to seek "at all costs" for culprits to alleviate the absence of the Saïd and Chérif Kouachi brothers and Amedy Coulibaly.
The three terrorists, shot dead by security forces on January 9, 2015 after killing 17 people and sowing terror in France, were "nothing" without the accused, supported the advocates general.
Morning essentials newsletter
A tour of the news to start the day
Subscribe to the newsletterAll newsletters
Some 200 people became civil parties in the trial, the first in terrorism matters to be fully filmed for the historical archives of justice.
Scheduled to end on November 10, it was suspended more than a month after the main defendant, Ali Riza Polat, tested positive for Covid-19 and then suffered medical complications.
