Former French jihadist Othman Garrido was sentenced on Tuesday evening by a special criminal court in Paris to 30 years in prison, with a minimum term of two-thirds, for his role in killings linked to the Islamic State, ISIS, in Syria.
The 32-year-old from Montpellier was acquitted of premeditated murder, but found guilty of murders committed by an organised group during the public execution of two men in Syria in 2015, as well as terrorist criminal conspiracy.
The prosecutions had sought a life sentence with a minimum term of 22 years.
'A fierce relentless jihadist'
Garrido lived in Syria from 2012 to 2020 after joining Islamic State, and the prosecutor described him as a “fierce, relentless jihadist.” He urged the court to convict him of murder and premeditated murder linked to a terrorist enterprise.
His presence at the public execution of two Iranians on 13 September 2015 in Al-Qaryatayn, in central Syria, was established by several photographs found on a mobile phone believed to have belonged to his wife.
Throughout the trial, Garrido argued that he had left for Syria under coercion and was under the influence of others. He portrayed himself as a forced jihadist, driven by fear of death and a search for recognition.
The prosecutor rejected his claim, noting that Garrido spent eight years in Syria, arriving before the declaration of the so-called caliphate and returning only after its collapse.
Suspicious repentance?
He said trying Garrido meant judging “one of Islamic State’s highest-ranking figures alongside Tyler Vilus,” another French jihadi and senior member of the group. Vilus was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2021 for taking part in another double public execution in Syria in 2015.
The court also heard Garrido present himself as deradicalised, pointing to his conduct in prison and his declared break with jihadist ideology.
But the prosecutor said he remained sceptical, arguing that although Garrido’s change might contain some truth, it appeared so sudden, complete and unexpected that it was “obviously suspicious.”
About 1,500 French nationals travelled to Iraq and Syria during the 2010s to join the ranks of Islamic State.
The group proclaimed a “caliphate” in 2014 across large parts of Iraq and Syria before being defeated in 2019 by a US-led international coalition.
