Terms ranged up to life in prison and included high-profile culprits Salah Abdeslam and Mohamed Abrini
A Belgian court has handed out sentences of up to life in jail to eight men for the 2016 jihadist bombing attacks in Brussels, bringing to an end the country’s largest-ever criminal trial.
The suicide bombings on 22 March 2016 at Brussels’ main airport and on the metro system killed 32 people and were claimed by the Islamic State group.
Continue reading...Abdeslam was only survivor of 10-man terrorist unit that struck in city, killing 130 people, in 2015
Salah Abdeslam, the only survivor of the 10-man unit that carried out coordinated terror attacks in Paris in 2015, has been found guilty of murder and sentenced to full life in prison, the toughest sentence available under French law.
Abdeslam, 32, a Brussels-born French citizen, was found guilty of taking part in the series of bombings and shootings across the French capital, which killed 130 people and injured more than 490.
Continue reading...Work paying homage to victims of 2015 attack – painted on door at Bataclan concert hall – was stolen in 2019
A French court has convicted eight men for the theft and handling of a Banksy painting paying homage to the victims of the 2015 attack on the Bataclan concert hall in Paris.
Three men in their 30s who admitted to the 2019 theft were given prison sentences, one of four years and two of three, although they will be able to serve them wearing electronic tracking bracelets rather than behind bars.
Continue reading...France’s biggest ever criminal trial enters final weeks, with prosecutors expressing regret about unanswered questions
French prosecutors have called for life sentences for 12 of the 20 men suspected of key roles in the November 2015 Paris terrorist attacks on a stadium, bars and restaurants and a rock gig at the Bataclan concert hall.
As the biggest criminal trial ever held in France entered its final weeks, prosecutors summed up the evidence and regretted that there were still key, unanswered questions about the coordinated attacks that killed 130 people and injured more than 490.
Continue reading...Seven Frenchmen and Italian on trial for theft of work thought to be a tribute to victims of Paris attacks
Thieves who stole a mural by the street artist Banksy on an emergency exit door of the Bataclan concert hall in Paris used a crowbar and angle grinder to prise it free, in a crime that lasted just minutes, a French court heard.
The work depicting a veiled and mournful figure is thought to have been a tribute to victims of the Islamist militant attacks against the Bataclan and other entertainment venues in Paris in 2015.
Continue reading...Frontman and guitarist watched Bataclan fans’ excitement turn to confusion as gunmen opened fire
The frontman and the guitarist for the American rock band Eagles of Death Metal have told a Paris court how they watched from the stage in confusion and horror as terrorists opened fire on the crowd at their sold-out concert at the Bataclan in 2015.
Jesse Hughes, the band’s singer, and Eden Galindo, a guitarist, both said the attack, which left 90 people dead, had changed their lives for ever.
Continue reading...Families, friends and survivors listen in silence to recordings from inside theatre where 90 people died
On the evening of 13 November 2015, about 1,500 concertgoers were watching the California rock band Eagles of Death Metal at the Bataclan theatre in central Paris. At the beginning it was “a great show”, fans reported afterwards. Youngsters were dancing in the pit in front of the stage and on the balcony; some were buying drinks at the bar.
On Friday, for the first time, a French court heard audio recordings and saw photographs of what happened next. There was silence as the court was played three sound recordings from the Bataclan attack, one of a series of bombings and shootings across Paris that killed 130 people and injured more than 300.
Continue reading...Surgeon said attempted sale of image showing forearm containing a Kalashnikov bullet without patient consent was ‘an error’
A senior French surgeon faces legal action and a possible disciplinary charge after attempting to sell an X-ray of a concert-goer who was shot during the 2015 attack on the Bataclan music hall in Paris.
Emmanuel Masmejean, an orthopaedic surgeon who practises at the Georges Pompidou public hospital in south-west Paris, was first reported by the Mediapart website on Saturday to be selling an image of the X-ray as a digital artwork, without the patient’s consent.
Continue reading...RTBF reporter unwittingly spoke to Salah Abdeslam, alleged kingpin of attacks that killed 130
A day before he goes on trial in the French capital, Belgian public broadcaster RTBF has released an interview with the alleged kingpin of the Paris terror attacks, recorded as he was fleeing France in the aftermath of the 2015 massacre.
Salah Abdeslam and 19 others are accused of planning, aiding and carrying out the 13 November suicide bomb and gun attacks on the Stade de France, bars, restaurants and the Bataclan concert hall that killed 130 people and injured 490.
Continue reading...20 men accused of involvement in 2015 massacre, but it is unclear whether the key accused will break their silence
Deep inside Paris’s historic law courts on the bank of the River Seine, builders were putting the finishing touches to an extraordinary architectural structure described as a cross between a high-security bunker and modern church.
Its sleek pale wood and white lighting were chosen by the French justice ministry to create “a sense of calm” in contrast to the horrific events which will soon be examined there. This temporary structure will from next week host the biggest criminal trial ever held in France, when 20 men are accused of planning, aiding and carrying out the November 2015 Paris terrorist attacks on a stadium, bars and restaurants and the Bataclan concert hall.
Continue reading...Christine and Sebastien met via a survivors’ group after being caught up in separate attacks in London and Paris
For most of the world, 2020 was a year of disease and death. For Christine Delcros and Sebastien Besatti, survivors of separate terror attacks in London and Paris, it brought love and a desire for life – feelings they thought they had lost forever.
“We know 2020 has been an annus horribilis for most people, but for us it has been a renaissance. A time to live again. It seems crazy to have found such happiness out of such dark times,” Besatti says in an interview with the Guardian.
Continue reading...Artwork thought to be homage to the 90 people who died in an Islamist attack on Paris venue
A mural by British street artist Banksy on a fire-exit door at Paris’ Bataclan theatre, where Islamist militants killed 90 people three years ago, has been stolen, the venue has said.
The work, one of a series of murals painted last June in the French capital and attributed to Banksy, showed a veiled female figure in a mournful pose.
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