Algerian student Sid-Ahmed Ghlam, on appeal for the murder of a young woman and an abortive attack on a church in Villejuif (Val-de-Marne) in April 2015, was again sentenced to life imprisonment.
A maximum penalty in accordance with the requisitions.
The student, "in a state of stress", according to the president of the Special Assize Court Emmanuelle Bessone, had refused to appear at the hearing for the statement of the judgment.
To read also Missed attack of Villejuif: the annoying detachment of Sid-Ahmed Ghlam
Earlier this Thursday, he asked for forgiveness from the family of the victim without however acknowledging his murder.
"I want to say sorry to the family of Aurélie Chatelain, sorry a thousand times, it really comes from the heart", said the accused, invited to speak before the Special Assize Court before the judges retire to deliberate .
During his appeal trial, Sid-Ahmed Ghlam, 30, admitted to visiting Syria in October 2014 and February 2015 to meet with ISIS officials.
He also admitted that he intended to carry out a deadly attack on a church in Villejuif.
But he denied being the murderer of Aurélie Chatelain, a 32-year-old mother, killed in a parking lot in Villejuif on April 19, 2015.
The unsupported thesis of the mysterious accomplice
As in the first instance, Sid-Ahmed Ghlam maintained that a mysterious accomplice, of which the investigators found no trace, had killed the young woman.
Only the blood and DNA of Sid-Ahmed Ghlam were found at the crime scene.
After the assassination, Ghlam accidentally injured his thigh while putting his gun back on his belt.
This injury forced him to give up his plan to attack a church.
During his appeal trial, he admitted that the plan was to kill parishioners and not just "scare them" as he claimed in his first trial.
Among his co-defendants, Rabah Boukaouma, considered by the prosecution as the "chief logistician" of the operation, praised "the courage and dignity" of the family of Aurélie Chatelain.
"I never wanted the death of anyone or Aurélie Chatelain or parishioners," he said.
"I am not an accomplice of a killing project," he maintained while acknowledging "a lack of discernment.
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Boukaouma was sentenced to 30 years imprisonment, including a two-thirds security period at first instance.
The advocates general wanted the Special Assize Court to confirm this sentence on appeal.
