Court sentences the most severe sentences of 18 years for two men who helped prepare the attack in 2016 that killed 86 people and injured over 400 after a truck attack
After over six years since the truck attack in Nice resulted in the death of 86 people and injured over 400, a French court has convicted all the eight suspects involved. According to a report by France 24 on Tuesday, December 13, the attack took place after a suspected Islamist attacker drove his truck through a crowd of people who were celebrating the July 14 national holiday in Nice.
The man driving the car named Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, a 31-year-old Tunisian resident, was shot dead by the Police during the incident and the court served the most severe sentence for two men who helped him prepare for the attack.
The report said, “Judges determined that Mohamed Ghraieb and Chokri Chafroud must have known about the attacker’s turn to Islamist radicalism and his potential to carry out a terror attack, based on records of phone calls and text messages among the three in the days ahead of the massacre”. The two were given a sentence of 18 years behind bars and have also been accused of helping Bouhlel rent the delivery truck used in the attack.
Meanwhile, another suspect named Ramzi Arefa was handed a 12-year sentence after the 28-year-old admitted to providing a gun to Lahouaiej-Bouhlel. The report said, Arefa was not accused of criminal association with a terrorist and said he was not aware of Lahouaiej-Bouhlel’s plan regarding the attack.
Five other suspects were sentenced from two to eight years in prison for weapons trafficking and criminal conspiracy, the report said. Aside from them, another suspect named Brahim Tritrou was sentenced in a trial in absentia, after he fled judicial supervision in Tunisia. The report said, Tritrou is now believed to have been arrested by the Tunisian authorities.
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