In the absence of the killer, eight accused appeared for “terrorist criminal association” in the trial of the Promenade des Anglais, which had left 86 dead and some 450 injured on July 14, 2016.
MO12345lemonde with AFP
After more than three months of audience, the verdict fell. Tuesday, December 13, the five professional magistrates of the Paris Special Assize Court spoke on the role of the eight people tried in connection with the Nice attack, which had killed 86 dead on July 14, 2016 on the Promenade des Anglais .
Mohamed Ghraieb and Chokri Chafroud, both sentenced to 18 years in prison, were found guilty of “terrorist criminal association”. Ramzi Arefa, who is sentenced to 12 years in prison, was found guilty of “criminal association”.
In total, eight people, seven men and a woman, had appeared since September 5 in Paris. Pathy sentences from two to eight years have been pronounced against the five other defendants, three of which are struck by a final ban on French territory. The eight convicts now have ten days to appeal.
None of them was accused of having played a leading role in the attack by Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, a 31-year-old Tunisian who sowed death on the Promenade des Anglais steering wheel of a 19 -ton truck. He had been shot by the police. His act had been claimed by the Islamic State organization, but no link could be highlighted between the jihadist movement and the Tunisian delivery man.
inevitable “frustrations”
In the absence of the attacker and direct accomplices, “there will be frustrations, it is inevitable”, had warned the National Anti -terrorist prosecution (PNAT) to the address of the 2,500 civil parties formed. General lawyer Alexa Dubourg had stressed that the trial would not compensate for the “immense, unfathomable” pain of bereaved and survivors. “Judging all responsibilities does not mean bringing the absent weight to the accused,” she added, “the sorrows [must be] adapted to everyone’s responsibility”.