French prosecutors on Friday laid out their demands for sentences in the historic Paris trial of 20 men suspected of critical roles in France’s worst peacetime attacks, the Islamic State (IS) group killing of 130 people on November 13, 2015.
Prosecutors recommended a life sentence without possibility of parole for the main suspect, Salah Abdeslam, the only surviving member of the group that carried out the attacks.
The request for no chance of parole is rare in France, where prisoners on life sentences are often released after 20 to 25 years.
Also on trial are 19 others accused of assisting the killers through various means. For three of them, prosecutors requested standard life sentences – two for high-ranking IS group members thought to have been killed in Syria or Iraq, and one for Mohamed Abrini, a Belgian accused of having provided weapons and logistical support.
For the remaining suspects, sentences of five to 16 years were requested.
The 2015 killing spree at a Paris music hall, cafes and the national stadium led to intensified French military action against extremists abroad and a security crackdown at home.
The three prosecutors summarized nine months of testimony since the start of the marathon trial, held in a specially built secure complex inside Paris’s original 13th century Justice Palace, with 12 overflow rooms to accommodate victims, lawyers and journalists.
Fourteen of the defendants have been in court. All but one of the six absent men are presumed – but not confirmed – dead. Most of the suspects are accused of helping create false identities, transporting the attackers back to Europe from Syria, providing them with money, phones, explosives and weapons.
'Bloodthirsty fury'
"Those who committed these heinous crimes are nothing more than lowlife terrorists and criminals," one prosecutor, Nicolas Le Bris, told the court on Friday at the end of three days of closing statements by the prosecution.
"The bloodthirsty fury of these criminals was without limit," he said.
Abdeslam, who was arrested in Belgium after five months on the run, kept silent during the police investigation but started talking during the trial, explaining how he gave up plans to blow himself up, and apologised to victims.
But his tearful appeal for forgiveness had little impact on the prosecutors, who believe that his explosive belt simply malfunctioned.
Prosecutors also said that Abdeslam's claim that he was recruited by a jihadist cell only a few days before the attacks was "illogical".
>> Read more: Main Paris attacks suspect apologises to ‘all victims’ at the end of testimony
A verdict of life in prison without parole has been handed down only four times since it was implemented in 1994, and all but rules out a later reduction of the sentence, and only after at least 30 years behind bars.
Abdeslam's brother, who was among those who attacked Paris cafes, was killed on the spot.
The trial will continue with defence pleas. Final words from the defendants are set for June 27, with a verdict expected on June 29.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)
