The supporters of the Islamist terrorist attack of July 14, 2016 in Nice have been found guilty in Paris. Two acquaintances of the assassin received 18 years imprisonment each for involvement in a terrorist organization, another twelve years. The other five defendants have been sentenced to between two and eight years in prison for, among other things, arms trafficking. Three of them also had their residence permits in France revoked.
The Paris public prosecutor’s office accused the seven men and one woman, aged between 27 and 48, of having been involved in various degrees in the attack on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice. Among other things, as members of a terrorist organization, they are said to have provided ideological and logistical assistance and helped procure a weapon.
One of the accused has been on the run for two years
In his closing statement before the verdict was announced on Monday, one of the accused said: “I have nothing to do with what happened. I’m not a terrorist.” The defendant, who obtained the assassin’s gun, said he didn’t think twice. Most of the others apologized in their closing remarks. A suspect who is said to have helped procure the pistol is on the run and has been wanted for two years with an arrest warrant.
The truck that the assassin was driving down the promenade.
(Photo: Andreas Gebert/dpa)
On the French National Day six years ago, 31-year-old Tunisian Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel drove a truck along the promenade in Nice, where thousands of passers-by were walking after a fireworks display. Lahouaiej-Bouhlel intentionally drove into the crowd and fired a pistol at police officers. 86 people were killed in the attack and more than 400 others were injured. Lahouaiej-Bouhlel was shot dead by the police.
A direct connection to the IS could not be found
The so-called Islamic State (IS) then claimed responsibility for the crime, but it is still unclear to this day whether the attacker really acted on behalf of the terrorist organization. Investigators found indications of an Islamist radicalization of Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, but no direct connection to IS. The perpetrator “wanted to kill as many people as possible,” the judge said.
In 2014, an IS spokesman called for attacks to be carried out in Europe, if necessary without the use of weapons, for example with vehicles. The Nice rampage was therefore possibly the model for a whole series of other attacks with trucks in major European cities.
In December 2016, an assassin in Berlin drove a truck onto the Christmas market on Breitscheidplatz. In 2017, similar attacks, probably also Islamist-motivated, were carried out in London, Stockholm and Barcelona. From 2015, France was accused of attacking the editorial staff of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and the attacks in Paris, including in the Bataclan nightclub, by a series of terror that has occupied the country to this day.
The memorial to the victims of the attack by the artist Jean Marie Fondacaro.
(Photo: dpa)
More than 800 victims and survivors appeared as joint plaintiffs in the Nice attack trial. Many had hoped for answers, which the trial was only able to provide to a limited extent because five of the accused had had no direct contact with the assassin. Even this verdict cannot heal the wound inflicted by terror.
Prosecutor Alexa Dubourg also said the trial would not compensate for the “immense, unfathomable” pain of the mourners and survivors. Since last summer, a sculpture, half angel, half human, on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice has commemorated the victims of the attack.