It was time for the verdict of a singular trial. The special assize court in Paris sentenced Friday, January 17, 19 "ghosts" to prison terms ranging from 25 years to life. These accused, dead or presumed dead, had joined the Iraqi-Syrian zone between 2014 and 2015.
The heaviest sentence was imposed on Mohamed Belhoucine, "guardian figure" in this trial and considered the mentor of Amy Coulibaly, the killer of the Hyper Cacher (January 2015). Among the 18 other "ghosts" in this case, all the men were sentenced to 30 years' imprisonment, and four women to terms of 25 and 28 years.
Five living at the helm
In addition to the "ghosts", five other defendants, present at the trial, were given sentences ranging from two years firm, immediately convertible, to 12 years imprisonment. Sentences generally lower than those required by the Advocate General, who had asked 15 years for two of them.
The court did not detail his motivations. The representative of the public prosecutor had seen in the "19 empty chairs" at the trial the illustration of the "hard-line" of these young French, Moroccans, Mauritanians or Algerians, who left at 20 or 30 years old, for "a trip without return "and" knowingly in a country at war ".
Among these "ghosts", Quentin Roy, who was killed for 23 years in a suicide operation in Iraq, the Faucheux couple, who left with their three children, the radical preacher Sofiane Nairy or the Belhoucine brothers, emblematic characters of French-speaking jihadism, who will be tried again in the spring at the trial of the January 2015 attacks.
Judge the dead
Quentin Roy is part of another group, that of the "friends" of Sevran (Seine-Saint-Denis), who all know each other, attended together the "Radars" mosque where they forged their jihadist certainties in particular in contact with Sofiane Nairy - who knew Mohamed Belhoucine at the École des Mines d'Albi.
The young convert is the only one of the "ghosts" to have benefited from a defense, giving the trial an unprecedented relief. "In France in 2020, we refuse to repatriate the living, but we judge the dead", scolded at the bar Me Antoine Ory Thursday January 16. And to explain the "paradox" which consists in "judging a man who has committed suicide", in a suicide bomber operation, when French law requires that the prosecution end with the death of the defendant.
Like many of the "ghosts", the "living" converted to radical Islam at the Sevran mosque where they all crossed paths or with mentors. Their defense described the power of "group dynamics", but also "the shame" felt in the face of "hate speech" uttered five years ago, and the path traveled by becoming a father or landing a job.
A message heard by the court concerning the two men appearing free, who will not go to prison: both were sentenced to two years firm, immediately convertible (with wearing an electronic bracelet), and three years suspended sentence with setting '' test (in particular an obligation of psychological follow-up).
The most heavily condemned is Iliès Benadour (twelve years' imprisonment), who admitted having "coordinated" the departures of his "friends", designated as an "essential" link in the sector in France. Like Yacine Bouhil, by his side in the box and briefly gone, his sentence was accompanied by a two-thirds security period and the two convicts will be entered in the register of perpetrators of terrorist offenses.
With AFP
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