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world news Diahuebs 17 December 2020

IS widow convicted in Charlie Hebdo, kosher market attacks

(AP) — The fugitive wid-
ow of an Islamic State
gunman and a man de-
scribed as his logistician
were convicted Wednes-
day of terrorism charges
and sentenced to 30 years
in prison in the trial of
14 people linked to the
January 2015 Paris attacks
against the satirical Char-
lie Hebdo newspaper and
a kosher supermarket.

The verdict ends the three-
month trial linked to the
three days of killings across
Paris claimed jointly by the
Islamic State group and al-
Qaida. During the proceed-
ings, France was struck by
new attacks, a wave of coro-
navirus infections among the
defendants, and devastating
testimony bearing witness to
bloodshed that continues to
shake France.

Patrick Klugman, a lawyer for
the survivors of the market
attack, said the verdict sent
a message to sympathizers.
“We accuse the executioner attacker, who got beaten to a dering a cashier to close the
but ultimately it is worse to pulp by the latter over a debt. In all, 12 people died that day. store's metal blinds. One witness, the French wid-
be his valet,” he said. The first was Frédéric Bois- ow of an Islamic State emir,
It was the coronavirus infec- seau, who worked in main- The first victim, Yohan Co- testified from prison that
All three attackers died in tion of Polat that forced the tenance. Then the Kouachis hen, lay dying on the ground she'd run across Boumed-
police raids. The widow, suspension of the trial for a seized Corinne Rey, a car- and Coulibaly turned to diene late last year at a camp
Hayat Boumeddiene, fled to month. toonist who had gone down some 20 hostages and asked in Syria and Boumeddiene's
Syria and is believed to still to smoke, and forced her up- if he should “finish him off.” foster sisters said they be-
be alive. The two men who Polat's lawyer, Isabelle Cout- stairs to punch in the door Despite their pleas, Coulibaly lieved she was still alive. Tes-
spirited her out of France are ant-Peyre, described him as a code. She watched in horror fired the killing shot, accord- tifying as a free man after a
thought to be dead, although scapegoat who knew nothing as they opened fire on the ing to testimony from cashier brief prison term, for reasons
one received a sentence of about Coulibaly's plans. She editorial meeting. Zarie Sibony. both defense attorneys and
life in prison just in case and said he would appeal. victims described as baffling,
the other was convicted sepa- “I was not killed, but what “You are Jews and French, the was the far-right sympathizer
rately. “He knew from the begin- happened to me was abso- two things I hate the most,” turned police informant who
ning it was a fictional trial,” lutely chilling and I will live Coulibaly told them. actually sold the weapons to
Eleven others were pres- she said afterward. with it until my life is over,” Coulibaly.
ent and all were convicted she testified. Some 40 kilometers (25
of the crime, with sentences In all, investigators sifted miles) away, the Kouachi Three weeks into the trial,
ranging from 30 years for through 37 million bits of The next day, Coulibaly shot brothers were cornered in on Sept. 25, a Pakistani man
Boumeddiene and Ali Riza phone data, according to vid- and killed a young police- a printing shop with their steeped in radical Islam and
Polat, described as the lieu- eo testimony by judicial po- woman after failing to attack own hostages. Ultimately, all armed with a butcher’s knife
tenant of the virulently an- lice. Among the men cuffed a Jewish community center three attackers died in near- attacked two people outside
ti-Semitic market attacker, behind the courtroom’s en- in the suburb of Montrouge. simultaneous police raids. It Charlie Hebdo's vacated of-
Amédy Coulibaly, to four closed stands, flanked by By then, the Kouachis were was the first attack in Europe fices.
years with a simple criminal masked and armed officers, on the run and France was claimed by the Islamic State
conviction. were several who had ex- paralyzed with fear. group, which struck Paris Six weeks into the trial, on
changed dozens of texts or again later that year to even Oct. 16, a French school-
The Jan. 7-9, 2015, attacks in calls with Coulibaly in the Authorities didn’t link the deadlier effect. teacher who opened a debate
Paris left 17 dead along with days leading up to the attack. shooting to the massacre at on free speech by showing
the three gunmen. The 11 Charlie Hebdo immediately. “This is the end of a trial students the Muhammad
men standing trial formed Also testifying were the They were closing in on the that’s been crazy, illuminat- caricatures was beheaded by
a loose circle of friends and widows of Chérif and Saïd Kouachis when the first alerts ing, painful but which has an 18-year-old Chechen ref-
criminal acquaintances who Kouachi, the brothers who came of a gunman inside a been useful,” said Richard ugee.
claimed any facilitating they stormed Charlie Hebdo’s kosher supermarket. It was a Malka, a lawyer for Charlie
may have done was unwit- offices on Jan. 7, 2015, deci- wintry Friday afternoon, and Hebdo. Eight weeks into the trial, on
ting. mating the newspaper’s edi- customers were rushing to Oct. 30, a young Tunisian
torial staff in what they said finish their shopping before Prosecutors said the Koua- armed with a knife and car-
One gambled day and night was an act of vengeance for the Sabbath when Coulibaly chis essentially self-financed rying a copy of the Quran
during the three-day period, its publication of caricatures entered, carrying an assault their attack, while Coulibaly attacked worshippers in a
learning what had happened of the Prophet Muhammad rifle, pistols and explosives. and his wife took out fraudu- church in the southern city
only after emerging blearily years before. The offices had With a GoPro camera fixed lent loans. Boumeddiene, the of Nice, killing three. He had
from the casino. Another was been firebombed before and to his torso, he methodi- only woman on trial, fled to a photo of the Chechen on
a pot-smoking ambulance were unmarked, and editors cally fired on an employee Syria days before the attack his phone and an audio mes-
driver. A third was a child- had round-the-clock protec- and a customer, then killed a and appeared in Islamic State sage describing France as a
hood friend of the market tion. But it wasn’t enough. second customer before or- propaganda. “country of unbelievers.”