French court convicts 20 for 2015 ISIS attack on Paris

A court in France convicted 20 men for their involvement in an ISIS attack on a number of Paris locations in November 2015, including the Bataclan theater, that left 130 dead.

After a nine-month trial, justice is being served nearly seven years after one of the deadliest terror attacks in the last decade.

Salah Abdeslam, the only survivor of the attackers, was found guilty of murder and attempted murder in relation with a terrorist enterprise. He received lift without the possibility of parole, the harshest possible sentence in France.

A woman is evacuated from the Bataclan concert hall after a shooting on Nov. 13, 2015 in Paris.
A woman is evacuated from the Bataclan concert hall after a shooting on Nov. 13, 2015 in Paris.


A woman is evacuated from the Bataclan concert hall after a shooting on Nov. 13, 2015 in Paris. (Thibault Camus/)

Abdeslam is the only one of the 10 attackers who did not detonate an explosive vest.

“I have made mistakes, it’s true, but I am not a murderer, I am not a killer,” he said in court.

Eighteen of the other defendants received other terrorism-related convictions and one was convicted of a fraud charge.

One of the defendants is also facing charges related to the March 2016 attack in Brussels.

Police officers walk outside the Bataclan concert hall, Saturday, Nov. 14, 2015 in Paris.
Police officers walk outside the Bataclan concert hall, Saturday, Nov. 14, 2015 in Paris.


Police officers walk outside the Bataclan concert hall, Saturday, Nov. 14, 2015 in Paris. (Michel Euler/)

Several of the defendants were absent, believed to have been killed in Syria or Iraq. One is in prison in Turkey.

“Not everyone is a jihadi, but all of those you are judging accepted to take part in a terrorist group, either by conviction, cowardliness or greed,” prosecutor Nicolas Braconnay told the court.

With News Wire Services

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