On appeal the main accused was sentenced to life imprisonment
During a trial in Paris, Ali Riza B. was accused of complicity in the jihadist attacks against Charlie Hebdo and HyperCatcher.
Ali Riza b. (Right) at a Paris court, December 16, 2020.
AFP/Mary Williams
Ali Riza b. Again, brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi and Amedy Coulibaly were found to be complicit in the crimes and sentenced Thursday to the maximum sentence of life in prison. Imprisonment.
Initially, in December 2020, the convict, who has always denied being a “terrorist”, was sentenced to thirty years in prison.
The Paris Special Court of Appeal ruling increased the sentence following requests from the public prosecutor’s office to “protect” society from a “highly dangerous” man and to “send a clear message” to those involved. Wanted to help a terrorist”.
Professional judges have combined this sentence with a twenty-year term of protection.
Six weeks of discussions
After six weeks of deliberations and nine hours of deliberations, Ali Riza B., a 37-year-old Franco-Turkish man with a wide frame in a white sweatshirt, stood up and pretended to leave the box when the verdict was announced. Sit back.
In the courtroom, a handful of civil parties greeted the verdict with solemn silence and surprise.
Speaking for the last time before the court retired on Thursday, Ali Riza b. He reiterated his innocence of the charges against him. “I never woke up one morning to destroy these people’s lives.”
“Decision Aid”
Willingly portraying himself as a “money-loving” thug, this close friend of hypercache killer Amédi Coulibaly admitted recovering a bag of “rotten” weapons in the summer of 2014, promising they were intended for “robbery”. “If I had provided the weapons, I would have guessed,” he said.
According to the case, this “right-hand man” and “best associate” of Amédi Coulibaly, who grew up in Grigny (Essonne), was “at the heart of the preparations for these gruesome murders”. He provided decisive assistance to terrorists who acted in concert on January 7, 8 and 9, 2015, and was “fully aware of the facts” of their plans, General Counsel Manon Brignol insisted.
President Jean-Christophe Hulin advised that “the nature of these weapons can only indicate a clear desire for violent action.”
Others are a condemned relative
The court sentenced another close friend of Amédi Coulibaly, Amar R., to thirteen years in prison – including two-thirds in custody – for supplying weapons to the future killer of the hypercatcher.
The State Attorney’s Office had requested confirmation of the maximum sentence of twenty years for criminal terrorist organization.
Amar R., 41, with a heavily scarred face, was stunned by the decision. He was “convicted of terrorism, which he has always denied and continued to deny when the verdict was announced,” said one of his lawyers, Me Yves Leperquier, “underscoring the very mixed feelings of his defense who argued for acquittal.
Attorneys for Ali Riza B. declined to comment.
“The legal story ends, but the story of the victims continues. (…) After two tests, we understood who did what.
Belgium’s Lille called the court “absolute” on Wednesday, considering that the prosecution’s “hypotheses” on the recovery of weapons through two channels used by the other, Amed Coulibaly, could not be evidence of guilt. .
“The legal story ends, but the story of the victims continues. (…) After two tests, we understood who did what,” assessed Riss, whose real name is Laurent Sorrizzo, director of the Charlie Hebdo publication and one of the survivors of the massacre at this writing.
Laurent Sorrizzo in Paris on July 16, 2019.
AFP/JOEL SAGET
With this decision, “We opposed barbarism and hateful justice. Justice has been served,” said Marie-Laure Barre and Nathalie Sennik, advocates for victims of Charlie Hebdo.
Three days of terror
During three days of terror from January 7 to 9, 2015, the Gouache brothers and Amédi Coulibaly waged a jihadist crusade against freedom of expression, police and the Jewish community on French soil and killed 17 people, including cartoonists Gabu. Volinsky.
Their murder and combined journey ended with their deaths during a double police attack.
These attacks marked the beginning of a catastrophic series of jihadist attacks, on November 13, 2015, the trial of which ended in June, and on July 14, 2016, the trial on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice, which has now been decided in the same court. .
AFP
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