- The Islamic State organization was implicated in a fatal attack on two police officers in their Paris, France, home in 2016. Larossi Abballa, the assailant who was fatally shot by police, claimed to have done so in response to an order from an IS leader to “kill miscreants at home with their families.” A trial about the incident in the Paris neighborhood of Magnanville has begun in a French counterterrorism court.
- Mohamed Aberouz, a boyhood friend of Abballa’s, is currently facing charges of conspiring with terrorists to murder and kidnap people. Aberouz, who maintains his innocence, might spend the rest of his life behind bars. The deaths, which occurred in the midst of a string of attacks in France blamed on the Islamic State organization, left a lasting impression on police personnel all around France. After the deaths in Magnanville, several people relocated, switched jobs, or quit in order to safeguard their loved ones.
- Court records claim that before they got home from work, police officers Jessica Schneider and Jean-Baptiste Salvaing’s homes were broken into by Abballa. Abballa murdered Schneider in the living room with the toddler watching when Schneider returned home. From the office, the father texted her to let her know “I’m leaving,” but she didn’t reply. When he got home, someone stabbed him. The perpetrator claimed to be holding the couple’s 3-year-old child hostage when neighbors phoned the police. He emphasized that he had not targeted civilians, but rather officials of the French state, in his statement to a negotiator from a special police unit, explaining that he took action because the French government was blocking the faithful from joining the caliphate.
- Abballa was slain by police when they entered the house and saved the youngster. The youngster, who is now 10 years old, has subsequently been nurtured by family members and is not anticipated to show up at the trial. Only Aberouz is being tried after more than five years of inquiry and several arrests. Two more people were initially charged but the charges were later dismissed.
- A year after the incident, Aberouz, now 30 years old, was apprehended when his DNA was discovered on the victims’ computer. At the outset of the trial on Monday, he entered the witness stand and vowed his innocence while denouncing Abballa’s acts. He denied any ties to IS at first, but eventually admitted that the organization shared his beliefs while condemning its extreme tactics. He insists he never visited the police couple’s house or participated in the attack’s planning.
- Vincent Brengarth, Aberouz’s attorney, declared that he will argue for acquittal. For his involvement in a botched gas canister assault near Paris’s Notre Dame Cathedral, he had previously received a jail sentence in another terrorism case. Police are expecting that the Magnanville assault trial will shed insight on the attack’s planning and the strategies employed by people who scheme to target police personnel. On October 10, a decision should be made.
Source:
Associated Press
