The accusation admitted Tuesday that the penalties claimed could cause “frustrations” for the victims. The verdict is expected on December 13.
mo12345lemonde with AFP
The accusation requested Tuesday, December 6, from two to fifteen prison against the eight accused, “links” to various degrees “of the channel” having contributed to the attack which had left eighty-six dead on The Promenade des Anglais on July 14, 2016. After the Defense pleadings, which will take place from Wednesday to Friday, the eight men will have a last time, on December 12, before the Court retired to deliberate. The verdict is expected for Tuesday, December 13.
Tuesday, the national anti -terrorist prosecution (PNAT) asked for fifteen years in criminal imprisonment against the three main accused, prosecuted for “Association of terrorist criminals”.
The accusation, however, asked the Court not to retain the qualification “terrorist” for one of them, Ramzi Arefa, who “supplies the weapon (…) used by the terrorist” while driving His teller truck, but which “could not know its radicalization”. He “could not know the radicalization” of the killer Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, estimated the public prosecutor, who nevertheless claimed fifteen years of detention against him as for the two other accused prosecuted for association of terrorist criminals, Mohamed Ghraieb and Chokri Chafroud.
These last two “did not know the ability [of Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel] to commit acts related to his radical ideology,” said Jean-Michel Bourlès, one of the three lawyers of the PNAT at the end of his indictment. As far as they are concerned, “doubt is not allowed. They acted by knowing his speeches, his fascination, his proximity to the Islamic State” and “did not ignore her ability to commit acts related to his Membership of radical ideology “.
” frustrations “for victims
At the contrary of the five accused, including four Albanians, prosecuted for common law crimes relating to arms trafficking, the PNAT requested sentences ranging from two to ten years in prison with the final prohibition of French territory for Three of the four Albanians.
Jean-Michel Bourlès and his colleagues from the Alexa Dubourg prosecution and Rachel Lecuyer deployed for almost eight hours of the requisitions notably stressing that the accused had to be judged “exclusively for the facts which are accused of”, even if it could generate “frustrations” for the victims. “There will be frustrations, it is inevitable,” launched the general lawyer Alexa Dubourg, opening the pnno three votes, recalling that “none” of the eight accused before the Special Assize Court could not to be judged “as if he were the author of the attack”.
“Islamist terrorism caused the death of several hundred people. The jihadist ideology is that which undermines the foundations of our democracy, that which stirs up the hatreds between citizens and fracture society”, underlined Mr. Bourlès At the end of his indictment.
At the start of the hearing, the PNAT had contradicted those who consider that the accused are there “because we looked for scapegoats and that we wanted a trial at all costs”. “There were sufficient expenses for a trial to be held. (…) No one can come and say that the file is empty,” assured M me 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 his “legal obligation” of information from the families of the victims, which had generated ” additional suffering “and” a break in trust with the judicial institution “.
Mohamed Ghraieb and Chokri Chafroud risk twenty years in prison maximum. Ramzi Arefa faces life imprisonment, because it is in a state of legal recidivism due to a conviction for theft in 2014.