Salah Abdeslam, the only surviving member of the extremist armed group involved in the terrorist attacks claimed by ISIS in Paris in 2015, has been sentenced to life in prison without parole for murder and other crimes.
A special terror court convicted 19 more people involved in the attack on the Bataclan concert hall, cafes and national stadium that left 130 people dead and hundreds injured.
The attack caused France to increase its operations against extremists abroad and permanently changed France’s internal security strategy.
The court found the main defendant, Salah Abdeslam, guilty of murder and attempted murder in connection with a terrorist organization. The court did not believe the defendant’s statement that he had given up on firing the explosive-bound vest and taking part in the attack, and ruled that the vest did not work.
The other nine attackers were killed or shot by the police on the night of 13 November 2015 by detonating their explosives.
He was sentenced to the heaviest penalty under French law.
Abdselam, a 32-year-old Belgian citizen, was given the heaviest possible sentence under French law. Life imprisonment without parole in the country is only four times so far; was given for the crimes of rape and murder of minors.
Except for Abdeslam, 18 defendants were found guilty on a number of terrorism-related charges. One of them was charged with the lesser crime of fraud. Some were given life sentences, while others were released based on their time in prison.
These individuals were given 10 days to appeal the decision.
On the night of the attack on 13 November 2015, the city’s bars and restaurants were full. The American music band Eagles of Death Metal was giving a concert at the Bataclan concert hall. In the national stadium, the football match between France and Germany had just begun. The French President of the time, François Hollande, and the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, were also at the match.
The sound of the first suicide bomb at 21.16 at night barely surpassed the noise of the crowd in the stadium. The second arrived four minutes later. Several bars and restaurants in another part of Paris were fired upon by an armed group at the same time.
At 21:47 three gunmen entered the Bataclan concert hall. Within minutes, 90 people lost their lives, hundreds were taken hostage, some were seriously injured. President Hollande then ordered the police to enter the concert hall.
Abdeslam apologized to the victims at the last hearing he attended on Monday, saying that his regret and sadness were sincere and sincere. He suggested that it caused the victims’ descriptions of “too much suffering” to change.