A French court on Wednesday sentenced Salah Abdeslam, the mastermind of the 2015 Paris attacks, to life imprisonment without any possibility of parole, following convicting him of terrorism and murder charges in the worst attacks in France.
Abdeslam is believed to be the only surviving member of the group that carried out the deadliest attack France has seen in peacetime.
The Paris attacks, which took place on November 13, 2015, were carried out with weapons and bombs.
Life imprisonment is the most severe punishment in France, which abolished the death penalty in 1981. This means that Abdeslam, aged 32, will spend the rest of his life in prison.
The court sentenced the remaining defendants to imprisonment from two years to life.
The trial, which took place in a specially designed courtroom in the historic Palais de Justice in the French capital, Paris, took nine months, and involved more than 2,000 plaintiffs and more than 300 lawyers.
The terrorist organization ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks in which 130 people were killed and hundreds wounded.
In this case, 14 people are being tried in their presence, knowing that six others, including five senior officials of the extremist organization ISIS, who are supposed to have died, are being tried in absentia.
The court also sentenced the 20 defendants who have been tried since September in the same case to prison terms ranging from two years to life. In particular, Muhammad Abrini, who “expected” to participate in the attacks, but retracted that, was sentenced to life imprisonment, with a term of no less than 22 years. Six of the accused were tried in absentia.
After a trial marked by the horrific accounts of regarding 400 survivors or relatives of the victims, including regarding 2,600 civilians, the prosecution requested prison sentences for the 20 defendants ranging from five years to life imprisonment, especially for the “accomplices” in the attacks, all members of the same extremist cell that was Elements of its units can “take in each other’s place,” according to prosecutors.
The prosecution also requested a life sentence without the possibility of parole for Osama Attar, the senior terrorist official in ISIS who is believed to be the mastermind of the attacks and was likely killed in Syria. (agencies)
