FRENCH COURT CONVICTS 14 FOR COMPLICITY IN CHARLIE HEBDO ATTACK

A French court on Wednesday found 14 people guilty of complicity in the January 2015 attacks on the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and a kosher supermarket, Lisa Louis reported for Deutsche Welle (DW).

Three of the 14 were tried in absentia after fleeing to Syria, including Hayat Boumeddiene, the former partner of the Islamist militant who killed four people in a supermarket and was later shot dead. Seventeen people were killed in the two attacks, as well as three gunmen. On January 7, 2015, 12 people were shot dead when two gunmen raided the editorial offices of Charlie Hebdo before fleeing.

The remaining 11 men formed a circle of friends and prison acquaintances who had argued their help was either unwitting or done to facilitate a more regular crime such as armed robbery. One of those convicted was on a gambling binge during the attacks, another was a marijuana-smoking ambulance driver, and another was a childhood friend of the market attacker.

Another defendant was Ali Riza Polat, described as the lieutenant of the anti-Semitic market attacker, Amedy Coulibaly. He was the only defendant to face a life term, and his frequent profane outbursts during the case drew a rebuke from the judge. Several of the defendants exchanged texts or calls with Coulibaly in the days leading up to the attack.

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