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The only surviving member of an Islamic State terrorist cell that killed 130 people in Paris in November 2015 was sentenced to life in prison by a French court on Wednesday, the harshest sentence possible under French law.
Salah Abdeslam, a 32-year-old Frenchman of Moroccan descent, was caught alive by police four months after the assassinations that left 130 dead and more than 250 injured.
In addition to Abdeslam, 19 other people accused of playing key roles in the country’s worst attacks in peacetime were found guilty “of all charges” on Wednesday.
Only 14 of them have appeared in court, while the other six have been tried in absentia.
The sentence was read out by the head of a five-judge panel overseeing the marathon trial of 20 people accused of involvement in the worst peacetime bloodshed in modern French history.
Hundreds of survivors and witnesses have followed the proceedings since their inception in September and they filled the specially built courtroom benches as the verdicts were read.
A team of 10 Islamic State jihadists surrounded the French capital, attacking the national stadium, bars and concert hall Bataclan in an attack that traumatized the country.
The trial has been the largest in modern French history, the culmination of a six-year investigation, in many countries, the findings of which go to more than a million pages.
Abdeslam began the trial by challenging himself as an “Islamic State fighter,” but ended up apologizing to the victims and seeking mercy.
The November 2015 attacks deeply traumatized France, with the choice of targets – the music and sports venues, the famous bars and cafes of the capital. The great loss of life marked the beginning of a terrible and violent period in Europe, as IS took responsibility for numerous attacks across the continent.
France, under then-President Francois Hollande, who testified in court, stepped up its military campaign to defeat extremists in Syria and Iraq.
Also on trial is Swedish citizen Osama Krayem, who has been identified in an infamous IS video showing a Jordanian pilot being burned alive in a cage.
The commander-in-chief of the Paris attacks, the senior figure of Syria-based IS, Oussama Atar, was also tried in absentia, but is presumed dead. Radio Free Europe
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