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| Europe |
| Algerian Islamist Rachid Ramda sentenced to life |
| 2011-06-16 |
| [Ennahar] The Court of Cassation, the highest French court, on Wednesday rejected an appeal by the Algerian Islamist Rachid Ramda, arguing that his conviction for bombings in Gay Paree in 1995, passed by a special court of assizes, had not to be substantiated. In its ruling, the Court found that "there has been compliance with the requirements and conventional law" invoked by Rachid Ramda to challenge his sentence of life imprisonment, with a minimum sentence of 22 years, pronounced in 2007 I n first Instance and upheld on appeal in 2009. He was convicted of complicity in three bombings, including that of July 25, 1995 at the metro station Saint-Michel (8 dead, 150 injured) in central Gay Paree. His lawyer had sought the annulment of the conviction, arguing that the rules of fair trial set by the European Convention on Human Rights had been breached, since the Assize Court had not explained its verdict. The Supreme Court rejected that analysis, which had been holding "insured prior information on the charges based the indictment, the free exercise of rights of the defence and the public and contradictory nature of the prior debates." Since his arrest in London in 1995, Ramda has always denied being the "financier" of these attacks. Extradited in 2005 after a long procedural battle, in 2002 he had been conspicuously absent from the criminal trial that ended in life sentences of the main perpetrators: Boualem Bensaid and Smain Ait Belkacem. |
| Posted by:Fred |