The prosecution has requested fifteen prison terms for each of the three main defendants in the Nice attack trial on Tuesday, December 6.

Mohamed Ghraieb, Chokri Chafroud and Ramzi Arefa are prosecuted for "terrorist criminal association".

But for the latter, the prosecution created a surprise by asking the court to condemn him for a "simple criminal association under common law".

Ramzi Arefa, estimated the public prosecutor, "could not know the radicalization" of the killer Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel who caused the death of 86 people and injured more than 450 at the wheel of his 19-ton truck, July 14, 2016 , on the Promenade des Anglais.

For having provided a weapon to the killer, the prosecution nevertheless claimed fifteen years of detention against him, as for the two other defendants prosecuted for terrorist criminal association, Mohamed Ghraieb and Chokri Chafroud.

The latter two "were not unaware of the ability (of Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel) to commit acts related to his radical ideology", said Jean-Michel Bourlès, one of the three general attorneys of the national anti-terrorism prosecution (Pnat) at the end of his indictment.

As far as they are concerned, "no doubt is allowed. They acted knowing his speeches, his fascination, his closeness to the Islamic State" and they "were not unaware of his ability to commit acts related to his adherence to radical ideology".

On the other hand, continued the Advocate General, Ramzi Arefa "could not know the evolution and the radicalization" of the killer because of his "recent" and less frequent links with him.

Consequently, "we will ask you to condemn Ramzi Arefa for a simple offense of common law criminal association and not for criminal terrorist association", he said, provoking stunned reactions on the benches of the civil parties. .

The public prosecutor demanded 15 years in prison for Mohamed Ghraieb and Chokri Chafroud, considering that their "real proximity" to the killer, their association "to varying degrees" with the rental of the truck used for the attack and their "positive steps to provide (him) with a weapon" made them very guilty of terrorist criminal association.

Against the five defendants, including four Albanians, prosecuted for common law offenses relating to arms trafficking, the Pnat requested sentences ranging from 2 to 10 years in prison with permanent ban from French territory for three of the four Albanians.

Jean-Michel Bourlès and his colleagues from the Pnat, Alexa Dubourg and Rachel Lecuyer, deployed their requisitions for nearly eight hours, stressing in particular that the accused should be tried "exclusively for the facts with which they are accused".

"Sufficient loads"

"There will be frustrations, it's inevitable", launched the Advocate General Alexa Dubourg by opening the indictment to three voices of the Pnat, recalling that "none" of the eight accused before the special assize court could not be judged "as if he were the author of the attack".

The Pnat contradicted those who believe that the defendants are there "because we looked for scapegoats and we wanted a trial at all costs".

"There were sufficient charges for a trial to be held. (...) No one can come and say that the file is empty", thus assured Alexa Dubourg.

She recalled "the singularity of the horror" of this attack, which had targeted "families".

Fifteen children and adolescents were killed by Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel.

If the representative of the Pnat defended the principle of judicial autopsies, sometimes "necessary", she admitted that the Pnat had "failed" in its "legal obligation" to inform the families of the victims, which had caused "additional suffering " and "a breach of trust with the judicial institution".

The requisitions caused the perplexity of the parties who attended the hearing from the relocated room of the Palais Acropolis in Nice.

"I hope that the court will be more severe than the requisitions, I do not understand these sentences requested after all that was said at the hearing", thus lamented Anne Murris, 62, president of the association Memorial des Angels, who lost her daughter Camille on July 14, 2016.

Mohamed Ghraieb and Chokri Chafroud risk a maximum of twenty years in prison.

Ramzi Arefa faces life imprisonment because he is in a state of legal recidivism due to a conviction for theft in 2014.

After the indictment and the defense pleadings, scheduled for December 7 to 9, the defendants will have the floor one last time, on December 12, before the court retires to deliberate. 

The verdict is expected on Tuesday, December 13.

>> To watch: Thierry Vimal, father of a victim of the Nice attack: "We should not expect anything from the trial"

With AFP

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