Fourteen people were found guilty of assisting in carrying out of a series of deadly terrorist attacks across Paris in early 2015.
A Paris court sentenced Ali Riza Polat to 30 years in jail and handed similar sentences to the other 13 people involved in the organization of violent attacks that left 12 dead at the headquarters of Charlie Hebdo, a satirical newspaper that published cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad.
The 14 defendants were found guilty of a number of different charges ranging from complicity in organizing the attacks to membership of a criminal network. Several of the defendants were absolved of terrorist-related charges but were found guilty of lesser crimes.
Charlie Hebdo attorney Richard Malka championed the conviction of 14 defendants, three of whom were tried in absentia, noting the symbolic nature of the result for a nation that has been repeatedly attacked by Islamic terrorists.
“It’s the end of something today, but I hope as well that it’s the beginning of something else: I felt, I believe, at least I hope, an awareness, an awakening, a desire to act, among citizens against a danger that kills, that wants to impose fear and terror,” Malka said.
Polat’s defense attorneys argued that he was used as a scapegoat when Cherif and Said Kouachi, the true authors of the attack, were gunned down by police during a shootout two days following the attack. French authorities argued that Polat and the other defendants supplied weapons and other materials used during the attacks.
Five other people died during the three-day killing spree in the French capital between Jan. 7 and Jan. 9, 2015. The attacks were later jointly claimed by the Islamic State group and al Qaeda.
Malka differentiated between the religion of Islam and Islamism, which he compared to fascism.
“This danger is not Islam — that has to be said clearly,” Malka said. “This danger is Islamism, that is to say, a fascism, and we cannot find excuses for it.”
