Before the special Paris Assize Court withdrew to deliberate, Mohamed Lamine Aberouz had repeated that he was “innocent” four times.
After a little more than eight hours of deliberation, the Paris Special Assize Court delivered its verdict. On Wednesday, October 11, late in the afternoon, she sentenced Mohamed Lamine Aberouz to life imprisonment, with a security sentence of 22 years.
>> Trial of the Magnanville attack: the disturbing personality of the accused Mohamed Lamine Aberouz
The only accused in this trial, he was tried for complicity in the assassination, on behalf of the Islamic State group, of a couple of police officers, at their home in Magnanville (Yvelines), on June 13, 2016.. Aged 30, he was found guilty of complicity in the assassination of a person holding public authority, complicity in the kidnapping of a minor and criminal terrorist association, at the end of a trial which lasted two and a half weeks.
A DNA trace which “establishes its presence” on the evening of the attack
The central question was whether Mohamed Lamine Aberouz was alongside the killer Larossi Abballa, shot dead the night of the incident during the raid by the Raid police officers. It was mainly due to the presence of his DNA on the wrist rest of the computer of Jean-Baptiste Salvaing and Jessica Schneider, the couple of murdered civil servants, that he was referred to the special criminal court of Paris . “It is a direct trace which establishes the presence of Mohamed Lamine Aberouz in this house”considered the court, composed of five professional magistrates and chaired by Christophe Petiteau, to motivate its decision. “There is room for an accomplice in this crime scene”underlined the president.
The sentence handed down is in accordance with the requisitions of the attorneys general, who had demanded, on Tuesday morning, the maximum sentence against the accused. The latter collapsed in the box when the verdict was announced. He remained seated for many minutes, his forehead lowered, curled up.
“He is shot. We don’t even know what he could have done at the scene. In all respects, it is a scandalous decision”, reacted one of his lawyers, Vincent Brengarth, at the end of the hearing. His colleague, Nino Arnaud, announced his intention to appeal within the legal period of ten days. Just afterward, Jessica Schneider’s mother, on the contrary, expressed her satisfaction. “I trusted justice, it was served. It shows the seriousness of what happened”she declared to journalists.