Three relatives of Father Hamel's killers were sentenced, Wednesday, March 9, to sentences ranging from eight to thirteen years in prison for "terrorist criminal association" by the special assize court in Paris.

The two authors, Adel Kermiche and Abdel-Malik Petitjean, both 19 years old, had been shot dead by the police after having cut the throat of Father Jacques Hamel, priest of the church of Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray (Normandy) in July 2016, near Rouen, in Seine-Maritime.

A jihadist-inspired attack which had been claimed by the Islamic State (IS) organization.

The testimony of Guy Coponet, whom the murderers forced to film the scene and who himself had narrowly escaped being slit, was a highlight of the trial, which was held for three weeks at the Palais de Justice in Paris, a few steps from that of the attacks of November 13, 2015 in Saint-Denis and Paris, also claimed by the IS.

In the absence of suspects directly involved in this attack, expressly planned, twelve days after the ram truck attack in Nice on July 14, the specially composed assize court ruled for "terrorist association of criminals", but not for complicity, three men now aged 25 to 36 who gravitated to the entourage of the two jihadists.

Prison and socio-judicial follow-up

Yassine Sebaihia, Farid Khelil and Jean-Philippe Steven Jean Louis were sentenced to eight, ten and thirteen years in prison respectively.

Although radicalized, all three denied during the trial that they had been aware of the plan to attack Adel Kermiche and Abdel-Malik Petitjean and asked for forgiveness from the civil parties.

The prosecution had requested against them between seven and fourteen years in prison, while the association of terrorist criminals is liable to thirty years of imprisonment.

A period of security of two-thirds was pronounced for these three defendants, as well as a socio-judicial follow-up for a period of five years after their release from prison, including in particular an obligation of professional activity or training, and a duty of care.

A fourth defendant, tried in absentia, because given for dead in an American airstrike in Iraq in 2017, the French propagandist of EI Rachid Kassim, alleged sponsor of the attack, was sentenced to life imprisonment for "complicity ".

With Reuters and AFP

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