Brother of Jewish school attacker jailed for 20 years over terrorism ties
Abdelkader Merah was sentenced to 20 years in prison by a Paris court.
A French court has convicted a French-Algerian man of terrorism ties but found him not guilty of complicity in his brother’s deadly attacks on a Jewish school and French paratroopers.
Abdelkader Merah was sentenced to 20 years in prison by a Paris court after a tense and emotional trial over his younger brother Mohammed’s killings of three Jewish schoolchildren, a rabbi and three paratroopers in the Toulouse region in 2012.
That marked the first of what became a wave of attacks in France by homegrown Islamic extremists.
The trial was the only opportunity for families of victims to seek public justice because Mohammed Merah was killed by police.
Abdelkader Merah, now 35, was accused of radicalising his younger brother but has always denied helping Mohammed prepare the deadly rampage.
Earlier this week, public prosecutor Naima Rudloff requested the maximum sentence for Abdelkader Merah: life imprisonment with 22 years before any possible parole.
He denied any wrongdoing over his brother’s killing of three French paratroopers and a shooting in a Jewish school that left a rabbi and three children dead.
