The chief suspect in the 2015 bombing of Paris that killed 130 people has been found guilty of murder and attempted murder in relation with a terrorist enterprise, a French court ruled.
The conviction of Salah Abdeslam, the lone-survivior of the attack, brings an end to the extraordinary nine-month trial held in the in the 13th century Justice Palace. The sentencing is expected later on today.
He faces up to life in prison without parole on murder and other counts – the harshest sentence available under the French justice system.
A further 18 men have also been convicted of terrorism-related charges for the Islamic State terrorist attacks on the Bataclan theater, Paris cafes and France‘s national stadium in 2015, while one man was convicted on a lesser fraud charge.
The assault constituted the deadliest peacetime attack in French history.
Over the course of trial, Abdeslam proclaimed his radicalism, wept, offered apologies to victims and pleaded with judges to forgive his “mistakes.”
The majority of the suspects involved with the attack were accused of helping create false identities, transporting the attackers back to Europe from Syria or providing them with money, phones, explosives or weapons. Abdeslam, 32, was the only defendant tried on several counts of murder and kidnapping as a member of a terrorist organisation.
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