Charlie Hebdo attack suspect from Türkiye gets life sentence on appeal
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Ali Rıza Polat, who stood trial in the case concerning the attacks on Charlie Hebdo magazine and a Jewish supermarket in Paris in January 2015 where 17 people lost their lives was given a life sentence.
The 37-year-old man with double citizenship of Türkiye and Belgium was accused of helping find the weapons used in the attacks that claimed 17 lives.
He previously received a 30-year prison sentence in December 2020, but he was retried after his appeal.
Paris Special High Criminal Court Prosecutor said society should be protected from Polat and defined Polat as considerably dangerous and a radical Islamist. The prosecutor also requested that the 30-year prison sentence should be commuted to a life sentence.
Polat rejected all accusations of terrorism, as he has done since the beginning of the case. He said he was not a terrorist, and identified himself as a bandit who "loved money."
The court ruled for a life sentence for Polat on the grounds that he took part in the crime of 17 murders taking into account the request of the prosecutor. The 20-year heavy prison sentence given to Amar Amdani, the other suspect, was reduced to 13 years.
What happened?An armed attack was carried out on the weekly humor magazine Charlie Hebdo on January 7, 2015, after the issue where they published a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad on the cover. Cherif and Said Kouachi brothers and Amedy Coulibaly raided the magazine building and killed 12 people there and one police officer outside the building. Cartoonists Cabu (Jean Cabut), Stéphane (Charb) Charbonnier, Philippe Honoré, Georges Wolinski, Bernard (Tignous) Verlhac, columnist and psychoanalyst Elsa Cayat, economist and editor Bernard Maris, organizer Michel Renaud, copy editor Moustapha Ourrad, police officer Ahmed Merabet, Charb's bodyguard Franck Brinsolaro and Frédéric Boisseau who was at the building for maintenance were among those who died in the Charlie Hebdo building. The next day on January 8, Amedy Coulibaly killed police officer Clarissa Jean-Philippe in Montrouge, in south Paris. And the other day on January 9, Coulibaly and Hayat Boumeddiene attacked the Jewish supermarket and killed Philippe Braham, François-Michel Saada and Yoav Hattab. A total of 17 people were killed in the attacks, 2 of which were police officers and all attackers were killed during the police operations. 14 suspects stood trial in relation to the attacks for taking part in the crime. Metin Karasular, a suspect in the case who was a Belgian citizen of Turkish origin received an 8-year prison sentence for being part of a crime network and Alı Rıza Polat received a 30-year prison sentence for taking part in a "terrorist crime." |
(HA/PE/VK)