Algerian student Sid Ahmed Ghlam was sentenced, Thursday, November 5, to life imprisonment with twenty-two years of security. A sentence accompanied by a definitive ban on stay on French territory at the end of his sentence. This verdict, announced after some eight hours of deliberation, is in accordance with the requisitions of the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office (Pnat).
According to the prosecution, the 26-year-old student had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State (IS) organization and planned to carry out an attack against one or two churches in Villejuif on April 19, 2015. On the way, he had killed Aurélie Châtelain , a 32-year-old fitness teacher, in a parking lot in Villejuif, with the aim of stealing her car, investigators told the Paris Special Assize Court. He then injured his leg with his weapon, then abandoning his plan to attack, still according to investigators. Hearing after hearing, Sid Ahmed Ghlam, for his part, denied having intended to massacre parishioners and affirmed that an accomplice – of whom no trace has been found – had killed “Accidentally” the young lady.
“This is what we expected from justice”
During his trial, the young man admitted to having visited Turkey twice where he met senior ISIS officials, including Abdelnasser Benyoucef, alias “Abou Mouthana”, head of IS’s external operations, tried in his absence and who was symbolically sentenced Thursday to life imprisonment. He probably died in 2016 in the Iraqi-Syrian zone.
Sid Ahmed Ghlam now supports being in the process of de-radicalization and presents himself as a “Repented”, even if the only names he was able to give to investigators were those of people who had already died. Since the opening of the trial on October 5, the young man had also not had a word of compassion for the victim’s family, only regretting ” his journey “.
“We have reached the end of what we could do for Aurélie”, entrusted the mother of Aurélie Châtelain, the murdered young woman, just after the announcement of the verdict. “It won’t give it back to us, but that’s what we expected from justice”, added Marie-Evelyne Bantegnie, in tears. Aurélie Châtelain’s former companion, Mickael Bazin, said to himself « relieved “ by the verdict in accordance with the requisitions of the prosecution.
ISIS’s “logisticians”
The trial of Sid Ahmed Ghlam also shed light on the role of ISIS “logisticians”, responsible for helping the perpetrators to commit their acts.
Rabah Boukaouma, considered by the DGSI as the “Chief logistician” of the operation – which the interested party fiercely denied – was sentenced to 30 years imprisonment, including a two-thirds security period. According to the prosecution, this man, originally from Mantes-la-Jolie (Yvelines) and already involved in other jihadist cases, would have been responsible for obtaining weapons and bulletproof vests, then conveyed to Sid Ahmed Ghlam by another accused, Abdelkader Jalal.
This second accomplice, who, in addition to the vests, had provided a stolen car which served as a cache of weapons, was himself sentenced to fifteen years of criminal imprisonment, including a security period of two-thirds.
Finally, a third accomplice, Farid Brahami, was sentenced to twenty-five years imprisonment, including a two-thirds security period. He was accused of having put Rabah Boukaouma in contact with the vendor of the bulletproof vests.
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