French court jails four for plotting Champs Elysées terror attack
A French court has sentenced four men to between five and 15 years in jail for plotting an attack on Paris's emblematic Champs Elysées avenue. A fifth defendant walked free, having already served his sentence in pre-trial custody.
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The five defendants were aged 17 to 39 when they were arrested in 2019 on suspicion of planning to attack policemen and civilians on the central Paris shopping street, not far from the presidential palace.
All except one were found guilty of "terrorist conspiracy" on Thursday after a trial which was held behind closed doors.
The oldest member of the group was sentenced to 15 years in prison, while a second was jailed for12 years.
A third, who was a minor at the time of his arrest but is considered by investigators to have been the leader of the conspiracy, was also given a 12-year jail term.
He was arrested in Germany in 2017 when he was just 15 for trying to join the Islamic State jihadist group in the terrorist organisation's Syrian heartland.
Investigators said he had planned to attack a police patrol on the Champs Elysées and "commit a massacre".
A fourth accused, a Chechen national who was also a minor at the time of the conspiracy, was handed a five-year term for failing to inform the police about the plan.
A fifth individual was sentenced to five years in prison, with 18 months suspended, for his part in financing the plot, but walked free as he had already served that time in pre-trial custody.
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