(AFP) A Paris appeal court on Thursday handed a 30-year jail term to Abdelkader Merah, brother of a French jihadist who shot dead seven people, finding him guilty of being an accomplice in the 2012 murders.
The verdict was received in silence in the courtroom, before sobs broke out among the [victims’] relatives in the public gallery.
Merah, 36, had in 2017 been jailed for 20 years being part of a terrorist conspiracy but had been cleared, by the lower court, of having a direct hand in his brother’s shooting spree.
The appeal court decision [was] reached after 12 hours of deliberations, the 30-year term falling short of the prosecution’s request for a life term for Merah.
