Lawyer for Convicted Paris Attacker Questions Harsh Sentence

This court sketch made on June 29, 2022, shows main defendant Salah Abdeslam during the trial of the November 13, 2015, Paris terror attacks. (AFP)
This court sketch made on June 29, 2022, shows main defendant Salah Abdeslam during the trial of the November 13, 2015, Paris terror attacks. (AFP)
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Lawyer for Convicted Paris Attacker Questions Harsh Sentence

This court sketch made on June 29, 2022, shows main defendant Salah Abdeslam during the trial of the November 13, 2015, Paris terror attacks. (AFP)
This court sketch made on June 29, 2022, shows main defendant Salah Abdeslam during the trial of the November 13, 2015, Paris terror attacks. (AFP)

The lawyer for the only surviving attacker from the November 2015 terrorist massacre in Paris criticized her client's murder conviction and life prison sentence without the possibility of parole, saying Thursday the verdict "raises serious questions."

Salah Abdeslam, the chief suspect in the ISIS attacks on the Bataclan theater, Paris cafes and France’s national stadium that killed 130 people, was found guilty Wednesday of murder and attempted murder in relation with a terrorist enterprise, among other charges.

His lawyer, Olivia Ronen, argued throughout a marathon trial of Abdeslam and 19 other men that her client had not detonated his explosives-packed vest and hadn’t killed anyone the night of the deadliest peacetime attacks in French history.

Abdeslam, a 32-year-old Belgian, was given the most severe sentence possible in France for murder and that "raises serious questions," Ronen said in an interview with public radio station France Inter.

During his trial testimony, Abdeslam told a special terrorist court in Paris that he was a last-minute addition to the nine-member explosives squad that spread out across the French capital on Nov. 13, 2015 to launch the coordinated attacks at multiple sites.

Abdeslam said he walked into a bar with explosives strapped to his body but changed his mind and disabled the detonator. He said he could not kill people "singing and dancing."

The court found that Abdeslam's explosives vest malfunctioned, dismissing his claim that he decided not to follow through with his part of the attack because of a change of heart.

The other nine attackers either blew themselves up or were killed by police. The worst carnage was in the Bataclan. Three gunmen burst into the venue, firing indiscriminately. Ninety people died within minutes. Hundreds were held hostage - some gravely injured - for hours before then-President Francois Hollande ordered the theater stormed.

Abdeslam was nowhere near the Bataclan at any time that night, defense lawyer Ronen said, suggesting he therefore did not deserve France’s most severe murder sentence possible.

"We have condemned a person we know was not at the Bataclan as if he was there," Ronen said. "That raises serious questions." She did not say if Abdeslam would appeal the verdict and sentence.

The sentence of life without parole has only been given four times in the country, for crimes related to rape and murder of minors.

The special terrorism court also convicted 19 other men involved in the attacks.

Of the other defendants, 18 were given various terrorism-related convictions, and one was convicted on a lesser fraud charge. Some were given life sentences; others walked free after being sentenced to time served.

They have 10 days to appeal.



Israeli Ultra-Orthodox Party Leaves Government over Conscription Bill

 Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, surrounded by ministers from the government attends a session of the Knesset, Israel's parliament, in Jerusalem, Monday, July 14, 2025. (AP)
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, surrounded by ministers from the government attends a session of the Knesset, Israel's parliament, in Jerusalem, Monday, July 14, 2025. (AP)
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Israeli Ultra-Orthodox Party Leaves Government over Conscription Bill

 Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, surrounded by ministers from the government attends a session of the Knesset, Israel's parliament, in Jerusalem, Monday, July 14, 2025. (AP)
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, surrounded by ministers from the government attends a session of the Knesset, Israel's parliament, in Jerusalem, Monday, July 14, 2025. (AP)

One of Israel's ultra-Orthodox parties, United Torah Judaism, said it was quitting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's ruling coalition due to a long-running dispute over failure to draft a bill to exempt yeshiva students from military service.

Six of the remaining seven members of UTJ, which is comprised of the Degel Hatorah and Agudat Yisrael factions, wrote letters of resignation. Yitzhak Goldknopf, chairman of UTJ, had resigned a month ago.

That would leave Netanyahu with a razor thin majority of 61 seats in the 120 seat Knesset, or parliament.

It was not clear whether Shas, another ultra-Orthodox party, would follow suit.

Degel Hatorah said in a statement that after conferring with its head rabbis, "and following repeated violations by the government to its commitments to ensure the status of holy yeshiva students who diligently engage in their studies ... (its MKs) have announced their resignation from the coalition and the government."

Ultra-Orthodox parties have argued that a bill to exempt yeshiva students was a key promise in their agreement to join the coalition in late 2022.

A spokesperson for Goldknopf confirmed that in all, seven UTJ Knesset members are leaving the government.

Ultra-Orthodox lawmakers have long threatened to leave the coalition over the conscription bill.

Some religious parties in Netanyahu's coalition are seeking exemptions for ultra-Orthodox Jewish seminary students from military service that is mandatory in Israel, while other lawmakers want to scrap any such exemptions altogether.

The ultra-Orthodox have long been exempt from military service, which applies to most other young Israelis, but last year the Supreme Court ordered the defense ministry to end that practice and start conscripting seminary students.

Netanyahu had been pushing hard to resolve a deadlock in his coalition over a new military conscription bill, which has led to the present crisis.

The exemption, in place for decades and which over the years has spared an increasingly large number of people, has become a heated topic in Israel with the military still embroiled in a war in Gaza.