Europa Press

La Jornada Newspaper
Friday, October 4, 2024, p. 19

Madrid. A Paris court yesterday sentenced Peter Cherif to life imprisonment for terrorism crimes related to the attacks against the satirical weekly newspaper Charlie Hebdo, perpetrated on January 7, 2015, which left 12 dead and 11 injured. Cherif, 42, was tried for three weeks for terrorism crimes committed between 2011 and 2018, as well as the kidnapping of three French aid workers in Yemen in 2011.

The judge sentenced him to life imprisonment and imposed an additional security measure of 22 years, as requested by prosecutors, who the day before presented Cherif as a integral jihadist and cornerstone of the aforementioned attacks, which were committed in revenge for some satirical cartoons about Islam.

Cherif was accused of having joined the ranks of Al Qaeda in Yemen and of participating in the training of Chérif Kouachi, one of the material authors of the massacre, as well as of having acted as recruiter, propagandist, military instructor and jailer during his years in that country.

Cherif, who throughout the trial took advantage of his right to remain silent, only acknowledged having been the jailer of the three French aid workers who were kidnapped and serving as a translator for Al Qaeda.