Peter Cherif, who was tried in the case of the attack on the building of the magazine “Charlie Hebdo” in January 2015 in Paris, the capital of France, was sentenced to life imprisonment.
Cherif has been on trial since September 16 at the Special High Criminal Court in Paris for his involvement in the 2015 Charlie Hebdo attack.
Cherif (42), who joined the terrorist organization Al-Qaeda in Yemen between 2011 and 2018, is accused of training Cherif Kouachi, who organized the attack on “Charlie Hebdo”, so that he could carry out this attack and that in 2011 kidnapped three French aid workers and held them for more than five months.
Convinced that the charges were justified, the court sentenced Cherif to life imprisonment. It was stated that the court imposed this sentence considering the seriousness of the charges against Cherif and the degree of danger of the accused.
Cherif admitted that he participated as a translator during the kidnapping of three French humanitarian workers, he claimed that he had no role in the attack on “Charlie Hebdo”.
In Charlie Hebdo magazine, before and after the attack in January 2015, offensive cartoons with the Prophet Muhammad were published. In the attacks on the magazine “Charlie Hebdo” and the Jewish market in Paris on January 7 and 9, 2015, 17 people lost their lives. The terrorist organization Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for the attack.
A total of 14 people were tried for attacks in 2020, three of them in absentia. The court handed down sentences ranging from four years to life in prison for 14 defendants, including brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi, according to Anadolu Agency.