Thalys thwarted attack in 2015: the shooter again in court
The four accused in the trial of the foiled Thalys attack on December 15, 2020. AFP - BENOIT PEYRUCQ
Text by: RFI Follow
2 mins
The appeal trial of the attack foiled by passengers in a Thalys in 2015 opens this Monday before the Special Assize Court of Paris.
The shooter, the Moroccan Ayoub El Khazzani, 26 years old at the time of the events, will be the only defendant in the box, his three co-defendants at first instance having waived their appeal.
El Khazzani was sentenced to life imprisonment with 22 years of security for "terrorist assassination attempts" in December 2020.
Advertising
Read more
On August 21, 2015, Ayoub El Khazzani boarded
the Thalys Amsterdam-Paris train in
Brussels with a Kalashnikov, a pistol, a cutter and 300 rounds of ammunition.
Passengers, including American soldiers on vacation, managed to control it and only three people were injured.
At the first trial,
El khazzani
had affirmed that, disarmed by the smile of a passenger,
he had given up shooting at the last moment.
That day, his mission was to attack the American military as well as members of the European Commission supposed to be on the train.
A "
fanciful
" version, had judged the Court, for which only the "
heroic intervention
" of the passengers had prevented him from killing "
blindly and indiscriminately
".
Wave of attacks
This attempted attack was part of the wave of terrorist attacks that peaked on November 13, 2015, the judges also pointed out.
It was indeed Abdelhamid Abaaoud, future coordinator and shooter of the attacks in Paris and Saint-Denis, who briefly trained Ayoub El Ghazzani in Syria and then joined Europe with him.
For this, the two men had followed "
the route of migrants
" behind Bilal Chatra,
sentenced to 27 years in prison for having played the scout
.
It is this same route that was taken by the commandos of 13-November.
Another common point, Mohamed Bakkali, sentenced to 25 years in prison in this Thalys case for his role as a conveyor, was sentenced to 30 years in prison last June for his involvement in the logistics of the November 13 attacks.
Newsletter
Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox
I subscribe
Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application
Terrorism
Justice
France