Life imprisonment was confirmed Thursday, October 28, against the Algerian student Sid Ahmed Ghlam, tried on appeal for the murder of a young woman and an aborted attack against a church in Villejuif (Val-de-Marne) in April 2015.
The 30-year-old student “under stress”, according to the president of the special assize court, Emmanuelle Bessone, refused to appear at the hearing for the statement of the judgment. He refused to leave his cell in the Palais de Justice to hear the verdict, forcing the special assize court in Paris to send a bailiff to notify him of its judgment.
“This demonstrates the cowardice of this individual who ultimately proved unable to face the family of Aurélie Chatelain”commented Antoine Casubolo-Ferro, the lawyer for the murdered young woman.
The court finally did not follow the requisitions of the general attorneys of the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office (PNAT), who had demanded the maximum penalty provided for by law. If Sid Ahmed Ghlam is sentenced, as in the first instance, to life imprisonment, he is no longer subject to a 22-year security sentence. On the other hand, his banishment from the territory at the end of his imprisonment was confirmed.
Confessions that do not convince
In their requisitions, the two general attorneys of the PNAT had recalled that Sid Ahmed Ghlam was a “a man of extraordinary danger” with a vision “misguided and paranoid” of his religion. “His goal was to sow terror”, they argued. During his appeal trial, Mr. Ghlam “persevered in his lies in a perverse way”. “There is nothing to expect from himadded the representatives of the PNAT. He did not have the courage to take responsibility for his actions. »
“Lying is part of how it works” and “He harbors a real hatred for the West”, they said again. Contrary to his trial at first instance, Mr. Ghlam admitted this time having traveled to Syria to meet with leaders of the Islamic State (IS) organization. He also admitted that he had intended to kill parishioners in a church in Villejuif before abandoning his plan.
“But these confessions are not. We were already convinced that the accused had gone to Syria and wanted to carry out a deadly attack on a church, the attorneys general said. In the first instance, Mr Ghlam acknowledged that he had met with ISIS executives, but in Turkey, and argued that it was just “to scare” to parishioners.
On appeal, he persisted in denying being the author of the assassination of Aurélie Châtelain, coldly shot in a parking lot in Villejuif in order to steal his car. As in the first instance, Mr. Ghlam maintained that a mysterious accomplice, of whom the investigators found no trace, had killed the 32-year-old young mother.
Only Mr. Ghlam’s blood and DNA were found at the crime scene, the attorneys general said. After the assassination, he had accidentally injured his thigh while putting his gun back in his belt. This injury had forced him to give up his plan of attack.
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