An appeal for nothing?
Even more severe than at first instance.
After a first conviction in October 2019 by the Special Assize Court in Paris, those who were the “face of female jihad” could have their conviction confirmed on appeal.
His "determination" to do "carnage" was "total": the prosecution requested this Friday thirty years of criminal imprisonment against Inès Madani, tried on appeal before the special assizes in Paris for a failed attack on gas cylinders near Notre-Dame in September 2016..
Advocate General Guillaume Portenseigne requested confirmation of the sentence imposed in October 2019 but requested that it be, this time, accompanied by a two-thirds safety period.
At first instance, the Special Assize Court did not pronounce a safety period against Inès Madani, 19 years old at the time of the facts.
It is "an error", estimated the representative of the general prosecutor's office, insisting on the absence, in the accused, of "exceptional signs of deradicalization".
Stressing on the contrary "the evolution" of Inès Madani in five years, his lawyers Daphné Pugliesi and Tewfik Bouzenoune asked the court for "a little hope", with a sentence "a little below thirty years, given his full recognition of the facts, given his young age ”.
A bad choice of fuel, hardly flammable
"She assumed" this attempted attack and "it's so rare" in terrorist cases, insisted Me Pugliesi.
On the night of September 3 to 4, 2016, Inès Madani and another jihadist, Ornella Gilligmann, parked a car bomb with six gas canisters in front of the crowded terrace of a restaurant near Notre-Dame de Paris, and tried to 'set on fire with diesel fuel.
Only this poor choice of this fuel, hardly flammable, made it possible to avoid a deadly explosion.
Ornella Gilligmann has not appealed against her 25-year sentence, which is therefore final.
To read also Failed attack of Notre-Dame: the false naivety of Inès Madani
Throughout the procedure, and again during the debates before the Special Assize Court ruling on appeal, Ornella Gilligmann and Inès Madani deferred responsibility and preparations for this attack, inspired by the French propagandist of the Islamic State ( EI), Rachid Kassim.
“There are truths that will escape us.
I want to say: it doesn't matter ”, swept the Advocate General.
The two women wanted to commit "a mass attack", which was "prepared, premeditated", supported the magistrate.
That night, he underlined, "the objective was obviously to mow down as many lives as possible, to cause carnage", as recognized by Inès Madani.
Sentencing her to "less than thirty years without security would be inconceivable"
For the Advocate General, to condemn Inès Madani, like Ornella Gilligmann, to less than thirty years of criminal imprisonment and without a period of safety would be "totally inconceivable".
While the second "stopped there" after the failed attack on the gas cylinders, Inès Madani continued her criminal project, pointed out Mr. Portenseigne.
Guided by Rachid Kassim, she joined two other jihadist women in Boussy-Saint-Antoine to prepare an attack with Molotov cocktails.
Knowing that she was being hunted down by the police, Inès Madani was arrested in this commune of Essonne on September 8, 2016 as she walked, a kitchen knife in her hand, towards a police officer.
He shot her four times and injured her legs.
Until the end, “his determination is unwavering and will never falter.
There is no evidence of weakness in this case, ”said the Advocate General.
To condemn Inès Madani more heavily because she committed more crimes is to make an "arithmetic syllogism" which "hides" the personality of Inès Madani, lamented Me Bouzenoune.
Rejecting the portrait of a "manipulative" Ines Madani portrayed by the prosecution, her lawyers have instead relied on the deep "malaise" of the young woman, radicalized since the age of 16 and immature.
"She wanted to die as a martyr, (…) it was first of all a death project for her", they assured.
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In another case, Inès Madani was sentenced in April 2019 to eight years of imprisonment for her role as a recruiter of radicalized young people, many of them women.
On social networks, she was posing as a jihadist fighter, not hesitating to disguise her voice.
"Massive recruitment weapon of the Islamic State" for the prosecution, Inès Madani had met Ornella Gilligmann, who fell madly in love with this male double.
The prosecution also requested the maximum sentence of five years imprisonment against Mohamed Lamine Aberouz, retried in another part of the case, for the offense of not denouncing a terrorist crime.
His lawyer Vincent Brengarth pleaded acquittal.
Verdict Monday.