Audrey Mondjehi, found guilty of conspiracy to commit terrorist crimes at the trial for the attack on the Strasbourg Christmas market in 2018, sentenced Thursday evening to 30 years of criminal imprisonment, will appeal her conviction.
“The decision has been made, an appeal will be lodged,” his lawyer Michaël Wacquez announced to AFP, confirming information from Latest News from Alsace. “The conviction for criminal conspiracy is based on, in our opinion, erroneous reasons. » "The Assize Court considers that Audrey Mondjehi's links with Chérif Chekatt", the author of the attack which left five people dead on December 11, 2018, "inevitably led to Audrey Mondjehi's knowledge of the state of radicalism of Chérif Chekatt and his membership in the Islamic State group, which we contest,” he added. Chérif Chekatt was shot dead by the police after two days of tracking.
Me Wacquez also underlined that the court had pronounced the sentence required by the national anti-terrorism prosecution (Pnat), i.e. 30 years of imprisonment with a two-thirds security period, while his client, aged 42, was was acquitted of the charge of “complicity” in terrorist assassinations against him.
The day after Audrey Mondjehi was sentenced to thirty years in prison at the Strasbourg attack trial, her lawyer Michaël Wacquez was not convinced by the motivation of the specially composed Paris Assize Court. https://t.co/dHVfyVsJVI
— DNA (@dnatweets) April 5, 2024
“It’s completely paradoxical,” said Michaël Wacquez. “The prosecution is requesting a conviction for complicity (in assassinations) and criminal conspiracy, one of the two counts is dropped, and the sentence is the same. This is insane. » He therefore deemed the organization of a new trial “necessary and indispensable”. Audrey Mondjehi, of Ivorian nationality, was also sentenced to a permanent ban from French territory.
The other convicts will not return to prison
In this trial, Christian H. and Frédéric B., prosecuted for having also played a role as intermediaries, but of lesser importance, were found guilty of criminal association under common law. They were sentenced respectively to five years in prison, including six months suspended, and four years, including one year suspended. The two men, who appeared free, will not return to prison, the fixed part of their sentence being, for one, covered by the time spent in pre-trial detention, and for the other, placed under an electronic bracelet.
A fourth accused, Stéphane B., was acquitted, “no active participation” being able to be attributed to him. The case of a fifth defendant, who sold the weapon used in the killing to Audrey Mondjehi and Chérif Chekatt, was separated due to his state of health. He could therefore be judged alone at a later date.