The Paris Special Assize Court on Wednesday handed down a sentence of eight years in prison against Yassine Sebaihia, ten years for Farid Khelil and thirteen years for Jean-Philippe Jean Louis at the trial of the Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray attack. .
In the absence of the perpetrators of the murder of Father Hamel on July 26, 2016, two 19-year-old jihadists killed by the police, these three members of their family or telephone entourage had been tried since February 14 for “terrorist criminal association”. They faced up to thirty years of criminal imprisonment. The public prosecutor had requested between seven and fourteen years of detention against them.
Unsurprisingly, the fourth defendant, Rachid Kassim, a propagandist for the Islamic State organization and the instigator of the attack, presumed dead in Iraq, was sentenced in his absence to the heaviest sentence: life with a security period of 22 years for complicity of the assassination of Father Hamel in his church.
Concerning Yassine Sebaihia, the Court affirms that it was not convinced by its “ protestations of innocence “. “ It is knowingly that you joined the duo and imagined a story a posteriori “, further specify the judges. Yassine Sebaihia had visited Father Hamel’s two killers two days before the attack.
For the Court, Farid Khelil, the cousin of one of the terrorists, who exchanged with him on Telegram encouraged him to commit the attack. While Jean-Philippe Jean Louis knew what the jihadists intended to do and even pushed them to take action.
A two-thirds security period was pronounced for Jean-Philippe Jean Louis and Farid Khelil and, for the three defendants, a socio-judicial follow-up for a period of five years after their release from prison, including in particular an obligation to professional activity or training, and an obligation of care.
On Monday, the prosecution had requested seven years in prison for Yassine Sebaihia, nine for Farid Khelil and 14 for Jean-Philippe Jean Louis, with a two-thirds security sentence for the last two, and the “ maximum penalty “, life with 22 years of safety, for Rachid Kassim.
►Also listen: Report France – Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray, a town still marked by the 2016 attack