The accused accepted the verdict without reacting. Moroccan Ayoub El Khazzani, the shooter commissioned by the Islamic State (IS) organization to carry out an attack on a Thalys train in August 2015, was sentenced on appeal to life imprisonment for “terrorist assassination attempts” on Thursday. . The special assize court presided over by David Hill followed the public prosecutor’s requisitions to the letter by attaching the sentence to a security period of twenty-two years.
During the appeal hearing, Ayoub El Khazzani delivered “little useful information to the investigation”, said David Hill when announcing the verdict. “There is a doubt about the work of questioning” of the accused, he continued. The sentence of the 33-year-old Moroccan was also accompanied by a permanent ban from the territory at the end of his imprisonment.
During his trial at first instance, in December 2020, Ayoub El Khazzani had already been sentenced to life imprisonment. He has been in solitary confinement since the beginning of his incarceration in August 2015. Invited in the morning to speak before the verdict, Ayoub El Khazzani had expressed his “regrets” and his “shame” for the act that he intended to accomplish.