Ali Riza Polat (37) has been sentenced on appeal to life in prison for complicity in the January 2015 attacks on the editors of the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo and the Hyper Cacher supermarket near Paris.
Co-accused Amar Ramdani (41) received a lighter sentence.
During the first-instance trial in the fall of 2020, the 11 defendants received sentences ranging from four to 30 years. Nine accepted the sentences, but two – Ali Riza Polat and Amar Ramdani – appealed. They had received 30 years and 20 years, respectively.
On appeal, the prosecution sought a life sentence for Ali Riza Polat. He is alleged to have helped the deceased perpetrators of the attack seek weapons and draw up the plans.
For Amar Ramdani, the prosecution again requested 20 years in prison, stating that he allegedly supplied the weapons that killed five of the 17 victims, and helped finance the attacks.
The assize court upheld the prosecution's request regarding Ali Riza Polat, increasing his sentence to life in prison, with a “security period” of 20 years. This means the French-Turkish national will be ineligible for parole for at least 20 years.
Ramdani received a lighter sentence. The court ordered him to serve 13 years in prison, with a security period of two-thirds of that term.
The attack against Charlie Hebdo took place on Jan. 7, 2015, when brothers Saïd and Cherif Kouachi killed 12 people and went on the run. The following day, Amédy Coulibaly killed a policewoman in Montrouge, near Paris then, one day later, he shot dead four men during a hostage situation at the Jewish supermarket Hyper Cacher in eastern Paris.
The Kouachi brothers and Coulibaly were eventually shot dead by police.
