2012 Toulouse attack: killer's brother jailed for 30 years
Abdelkader Merah, brother of French jihadist Mohammed Merah who shot seven people dead in 2012, was handed a 30-year prison sentence after a court found him guilty of being an accomplice.
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The terrorist's brother escaped the life imprisonment sentence sought by the prosecution.
After the sentencing, Abdelkader Merah's lawyer, Eric Dupont-Moretti said the Paris Assizes court's ruling took him aback.
"He's been sentenced to 30 years. It's totally incomprehensible. I think the entire profession is in disbelief. The sollicitors-general (for the prosecution) said, 'France is watching you' , and I think that when the courts omit the essential rule of the benefit of the doubt, it's enough to make you lose all hope. Even when the accused's name is Abdel Kader Merah.
Abdelkader Merah had been jailed for 20 years in 2017 for being part of a terrorist conspiracy.
A lower court had however cleared him of direct involvement in his brother's crime.
in March 2012, Mohamed Merah killed three soldiers before he turned up at a Jewish school in Toulouse where he shot dead a rabbi, two of the rabbi's children, aged three and five, and another eight-year-old child
The gunman was killed by police after a 32-hour siege at his home, three days after the school murders.
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