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| Europe |
| Frenchies sentence two Algerians to life for bombings... |
| 2002-10-30 |
| A French court has sentenced two Algerian men to life imprisonment for the 1995 bombing campaign on Paris public transport which killed eight people. Boualem Bensaid and Smain Ait Ali Belkacem, both aged 34, are already serving 10-year jail sentences for membership of the Algerian Armed Islamic Group (GIA). Bensaid is also serving 30 years for a failed attack on a high-speed TGV train in August 1995. Around 200 people were also injured in the bombings, leaving the city in a state of shock. The worst attack happened on 25 July at the Saint-Michel suburban railway (RER) station - when all of the eight fatalities occurred. Explosives and nails had been packed into a gas bottle, and the explosion caused horrific injuries. Adherents of the Master Religion are allowed to do that sort of thing. After all, the victims are only infidels, for the most part... GIA said it carried out the bombings to punish France for supporting the Algerian Government in its war on Islamic rebels. A third man accused over the attacks, Rachid Ramda, 33, has been held in London since 1995, but his extradition has been blocked by UK courts. Judges in Paris are expected to try him in absentia. Guess he can be sentenced in absentia, too. And serve his time in absentia. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |
| #1 Wait a minute. I thought the Frogs, er, French were against trials in absentia. They certainly have refused to turn back Americans convicted in American courts in absentia. There was a celebrated case of that in the news recently -- some goof whacked his girlfriend (in Philly?), fled to France, got convicted, and then the French wouldn't hand him back. I guess it's different when the French do it. |
| Posted by: Steve White 2002-10-31 12:14:40 |