The requisitions have been taken. At the trial of the Nice attack, the prosecution demanded Tuesday between two and fifteen years of imprisonment against the eight defendants, “links” to varying degrees “of the chain” having contributed to the attack which had made 86 died on the Promenade des Anglais on the evening of July 14, 2016.
The National Anti-Terrorist Prosecutor’s Office (PNAT) created a surprise by asking the special Assize Court of Paris to condemn Ramzi Arefa, one of the three defendants prosecuted for “terrorist association of criminals”, for a “simple association of criminals of common right “. The latter “could not know the radicalization” of the killer Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel at the wheel of his 19-ton truck, estimated the public prosecutor who nevertheless claimed 15 years of detention against him.
By “knowing his proximity to the Islamic State”
It is the same sentence that was required against the two other defendants prosecuted for terrorist criminal association, Mohamed Ghraieb and Chokri Chafroud. They “did not ignore the ability [de l’auteur de l’attaque] to commit acts in connection with his radical ideology”, affirmed Jean-Michel Bourlès, one of the three general attorneys. “Doubt is not allowed [en ce qui les concerne]. They acted knowing his speeches, his fascination, his closeness to the Islamic State,” he argued.
On the other hand, Ramzi Arefa, accused of having provided a weapon to Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, “could not know the evolution and the radicalization” of the killer because of his “recent” and less frequent links with him. Accordingly, “we will ask you to [le] convict for a simple offense of criminal association under common law, ”he said, provoking stunned reactions on the benches of the civil parties.
Against the five other defendants, including four Albanians, prosecuted for offenses relating to arms trafficking, sentences ranging from two to ten years in prison were required. With, in addition, a definitive ban on French territory for three of them.
“There will be frustrations” among the victims
Jean-Michel Bourlès and his two colleagues from the PNAT deployed requisitions for nearly eight hours, stressing in particular that the accused should be tried “exclusively for the acts of which they are accused”. “There will be frustration [parmi les victimes]it is inevitable”, launched the Advocate General Alexa Dubourg by opening the indictment to three voices of the Pnat, recalling that “none” of the eight defendants before the special assize court could not be judged “as if he was the perpetrator of the attack.
“Islamist terrorism has caused the death of several hundred people. The jihadist ideology is the one that undermines the foundations of our democracy, the one that stirs up hatred between citizens and fractures society,” said Jean-Michel Bourlès.
At the start of the hearing, the Pnat had contradicted those who believe that the defendants are there “because we looked for scapegoats and wanted a trial at all costs”. “There were sufficient charges for a trial to take place. No one can come and say that the file is empty”, thus assured Alexa Dubourg, recalling “the singularity of the horror” of this attack, which had targeted “families”. Fifteen children and adolescents were killed by Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel.
The verdict expected on Tuesday, December 13
If the representative of the Pnat defended the principle of judicial autopsies, sometimes “necessary”, she admitted that the Pnat had “failed” in its “legal obligation” to inform the families of the victims, which had caused “additional suffering and “a breach of trust with the judicial institution”.
Mohamed Ghraieb and Chokri Chafroud risk a maximum of twenty years in prison. Ramzi Arefa faces life imprisonment because he is in a state of legal recidivism due to a conviction for theft in 2014. After the defense arguments, scheduled for December 7 to 9, the defendants will have one last time the floor on the 12th, before the court retired to deliberate. The verdict is expected on the 13th.