Accomplice in 2016 killing of French police couple jailed for life
A French court on Wednesday sentenced the accomplice of an Islamist radical, who killed a police officer couple in 2016 at their home in front of their child, to life in prison.
Mohamed Lamine Aberouz, 30, was found guilty of complicity in the stabbings of Jean-Baptiste Salvaing and his partner Jessica Schneider by his friend Larossi Abballa.
Abballa slit 36-year-old Schneider's throat in front of her three-year-old son and then stabbed 42-year-old Salvaing to death outside the house before being shot dead by a police response unit.
The attack, which took place at the height of a terror wave, traumatised the police, marking the first time that officers were traced to, and killed in their homes.
Abballa, 25, claimed the attack on behalf of the Islamic State group in a chilling 12-minute Facebook Live video from the scene of the crime.
Aberouz was charged with complicity in the killings after his DNA was found on the wrist rest of a computer in the victims' home. He denied the charges.
His life sentence came with the stipulation that he not be granted parole for 22 years.
Aberouz is already serving a five-year jail sentence for failing to report a terror plot.
Investigators believed he was by Abballa's side on the night of the attack and that they used the computer to find pictures of Salvaing to help Abballa identify him before he struck.
His lawyers claimed his DNA came from Abballa's car.
At the close of his trial, which lasted two-and-a-half weeks, Aberouz pleaded with the court not to punish him for Abballa's actions, saying: "Convicting an innocent person will not make amends for the crime."
Investigators argued that Aberouz and Abballa "were both motivated by the same ideology in favour of armed jihad".
Aberouz's former girlfriend, Sarah Hervouet, was jailed for 20 years for stabbing a plainclothes policeman in September 2016, after a failed attempt to detonate a car bomb near Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris.
Aberouz was sentenced to jail for failing to report the plot.
France was from 2015 hit by a spate of attacks carried out by radical Islamists, including the November 2015 suicide and gun attacks on Paris that left 130 dead.
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Mohamed Lamine Aberouz, 30, was found guilty of complicity in the stabbings of Jean-Baptiste Salvaing and his partner Jessica Schneider by his friend Larossi Abballa.
Abballa slit 36-year-old Schneider's throat in front of her three-year-old son and then stabbed 42-year-old Salvaing to death outside the house before being shot dead by a police response unit.
The attack, which took place at the height of a terror wave, traumatised the police, marking the first time that officers were traced to, and killed in their homes.
Abballa, 25, claimed the attack on behalf of the Islamic State group in a chilling 12-minute Facebook Live video from the scene of the crime.
Aberouz was charged with complicity in the killings after his DNA was found on the wrist rest of a computer in the victims' home. He denied the charges.
His life sentence came with the stipulation that he not be granted parole for 22 years.
Aberouz is already serving a five-year jail sentence for failing to report a terror plot.
Investigators believed he was by Abballa's side on the night of the attack and that they used the computer to find pictures of Salvaing to help Abballa identify him before he struck.
His lawyers claimed his DNA came from Abballa's car.
At the close of his trial, which lasted two-and-a-half weeks, Aberouz pleaded with the court not to punish him for Abballa's actions, saying: "Convicting an innocent person will not make amends for the crime."
Investigators argued that Aberouz and Abballa "were both motivated by the same ideology in favour of armed jihad".
Aberouz's former girlfriend, Sarah Hervouet, was jailed for 20 years for stabbing a plainclothes policeman in September 2016, after a failed attempt to detonate a car bomb near Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris.
Aberouz was sentenced to jail for failing to report the plot.
France was from 2015 hit by a spate of attacks carried out by radical Islamists, including the November 2015 suicide and gun attacks on Paris that left 130 dead.
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