This figure of French jihadism had been sentenced to the same sentence at first instance.
Sentence confirmed. The special assize court of Paris judging on appeal was once again more lenient than the prosecution by confirming Friday the judgment of first instance which condemned to 14 years of imprisonment, accompanied by a security period of two-thirds , the “repentant” Kevin Guiavarch, French pioneer of jihadism.
His wife Salma O., who was appearing free, was sentenced to 6 years’ imprisonment, also as in the first instance, which she will be able to accomplish at home under an electronic bracelet because of her “reintegration efforts”. His sentence is accompanied by a socio-judicial follow-up measure of 5 years.
“It is the sentence that marks the seriousness of the acts committed”
These sentences, confirmed by the Court of Appeal, were deemed insufficient by the National Anti-Terrorist Prosecutor’s Office (Pnat), which had appealed to review their duration. During his requisitions on Friday, the Advocate General had requested 18 years’ imprisonment with a two-thirds security period against Kevin Guiavarch (as during the trial at first instance) and 12 years’ imprisonment against his wife (compared to 14 years during the first instance trial) with a five-year socio-judicial follow-up. “The guilt of the accused is no longer in debate today”recalled the Advocate General.
“Society needs time” For “trust” to the defendants, he explained before conceding that the two defendants were not part of the “elite soldiers” of the Islamic State organization and had not participated in abuses attributed to the jihadist organization. Kevin Guiavarch is not “neither a fanatic, nor an enlightened one”acknowledged the Advocate General, but, he insisted, “it is the sentence that marks the seriousness of the acts committed”.
Kevin Guiavarch, 30, and Salma O., 41, were among the first French people to join Syria in early 2013, even before the official birth of the Islamic State (IS) organization. Having pledged allegiance to IS in June 2013, Kevin Guiavarch claimed to have been only a “stretcher bearer” or “nurse”, admitting to having participated only in checkpoint surveillance even though he posted photos on Facebook of him (and of Salma) in fatigues and arms, martyr’s headband on the forehead.