Life sentence for man who killed three people in Nice basilica

The perpetrator of the attack that killed three people in the basilica of Nice, in southeastern France, in 2020, Tunisian Brahim Aouissaoui, was today sentenced to life imprisonment, without possible reduction of sentence, by the Paris Court.

The court judge accepted the maximum sentence requested by the prosecution - the most severe in the French penal code - against the only defendant accused of carrying out the terrorist attack on October 29, 2020, whose victims included the Franco-Brazilian Simone Barreto Silva, 44 years old and mother of 14 children.

Simone Barreto Silva was stabbed to death when she entered the basilica in Nice, where she found the decapitated body of Nadine Devillers, a 60-year-old churchgoer and the first victim of the attack. The sacristan Vincent Loquès, 54, who tried to restrain the attacker, was also killed, before a municipal police patrol intervened.

The attacker, who had been in a coma for several weeks after being shot, had arrived in France less than three days before the incident from Italy. After waking from the coma, Aouissaoui claimed to have no memory of what had happened, an argument he maintained during the first days of the trial, despite psychiatric reports proving that he had not suffered any memory loss and some incriminating messages he had sent while in pre-trial detention.

On Monday, during his interrogation, Brahim Aouissaoui completely changed his version, acknowledging the facts, which he justified as an act of revenge on behalf of Muslims, although he denied any terrorist character. "Every day Muslims are killed. Every day they kill Muslims and they don't care. They show no empathy for them," he said in Arabic, being translated by an interpreter.

The defendant stated that “the West kills blindly” and that “revenge is a right and a truth”, but insisting that he is not a terrorist but a Muslim.

Brahim Aouissaoui also said that he had not prepared his action, claiming that he had bought knives “to cut bread”.

“I have already told you why I did what I did, but I do not remember how I did it (...) It was my destiny. I accept what is destined for me. Everyone is responsible for what they do, of course I am responsible,” he added.

The perpetrator of the attack that killed three people in the basilica of Nice, in southeastern France, in 2020, Tunisian Brahim Aouissaoui, was today sentenced to life imprisonment, without possible reduction of sentence, by the Paris Court.

The court judge accepted the maximum sentence requested by the prosecution - the most severe in the French penal code - against the only defendant accused of carrying out the terrorist attack on October 29, 2020, whose victims included the Franco-Brazilian Simone Barreto Silva, 44 years old and mother of 14 children.

Simone Barreto Silva was stabbed to death when she entered the basilica in Nice, where she found the decapitated body of Nadine Devillers, a 60-year-old churchgoer and the first victim of the attack. The sacristan Vincent Loquès, 54, who tried to restrain the attacker, was also killed, before a municipal police patrol intervened.

The attacker, who had been in a coma for several weeks after being shot, had arrived in France less than three days before the incident from Italy. After waking from the coma, Aouissaoui claimed to have no memory of what had happened, an argument he maintained during the first days of the trial, despite psychiatric reports proving that he had not suffered any memory loss and some incriminating messages he had sent while in pre-trial detention.

On Monday, during his interrogation, Brahim Aouissaoui completely changed his version, acknowledging the facts, which he justified as an act of revenge on behalf of Muslims, although he denied any terrorist character. "Every day Muslims are killed. Every day they kill Muslims and they don't care. They show no empathy for them," he said in Arabic, being translated by an interpreter.

The defendant stated that “the West kills blindly” and that “revenge is a right and a truth”, but insisting that he is not a terrorist but a Muslim.

Brahim Aouissaoui also said that he had not prepared his action, claiming that he had bought knives “to cut bread”.

“I have already told you why I did what I did, but I do not remember how I did it (...) It was my destiny. I accept what is destined for me. Everyone is responsible for what they do, of course I am responsible,” he added.

The perpetrator of the attack that killed three people in the basilica of Nice, in southeastern France, in 2020, Tunisian Brahim Aouissaoui, was today sentenced to life imprisonment, without possible reduction of sentence, by the Paris Court.

The court judge accepted the maximum sentence requested by the prosecution - the most severe in the French penal code - against the only defendant accused of carrying out the terrorist attack on October 29, 2020, whose victims included the Franco-Brazilian Simone Barreto Silva, 44 years old and mother of 14 children.

Simone Barreto Silva was stabbed to death when she entered the basilica in Nice, where she found the decapitated body of Nadine Devillers, a 60-year-old churchgoer and the first victim of the attack. The sacristan Vincent Loquès, 54, who tried to restrain the attacker, was also killed, before a municipal police patrol intervened.

The attacker, who had been in a coma for several weeks after being shot, had arrived in France less than three days before the incident from Italy. After waking from the coma, Aouissaoui claimed to have no memory of what had happened, an argument he maintained during the first days of the trial, despite psychiatric reports proving that he had not suffered any memory loss and some incriminating messages he had sent while in pre-trial detention.

On Monday, during his interrogation, Brahim Aouissaoui completely changed his version, acknowledging the facts, which he justified as an act of revenge on behalf of Muslims, although he denied any terrorist character. "Every day Muslims are killed. Every day they kill Muslims and they don't care. They show no empathy for them," he said in Arabic, being translated by an interpreter.

The defendant stated that “the West kills blindly” and that “revenge is a right and a truth”, but insisting that he is not a terrorist but a Muslim.

Brahim Aouissaoui also said that he had not prepared his action, claiming that he had bought knives “to cut bread”.

“I have already told you why I did what I did, but I do not remember how I did it (...) It was my destiny. I accept what is destined for me. Everyone is responsible for what they do, of course I am responsible,” he added.