Paris attacks trial: Salah Abdeslam will not appeal conviction and life sentence

A court sketch of main defendant Salah Abdeslam during the trial in Paris on June 29.
A court sketch of main defendant Salah Abdeslam during the trial in Paris on June 29. Copyright BENOIT PEYRUCQ / AFP
Copyright BENOIT PEYRUCQ / AFP
By Euronews with AP, AFP
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Prosecutors and all other suspects have also not appealed, meaning last month's verdict is final.

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None of the 20 suspects convicted over the 2015 Paris terror attacks have appealed the verdict, according to prosecutors.

Salah Abdeslam -- the last surviving member of the so-called Islamic State (IS) terrorist cell that committed the attacks -- has renounced the right to appeal his murder conviction and life prison sentence, his lawyers said.

Abdeslam was convicted last month of murder, attempted murder, and terrorism charges over the deadliest peacetime attack in French history.

A total of 130 people were killed outside the Stade de France, at various Paris cafes and bars, and inside the Bataclan concert hall on 13 November 2015.

Judges handed Abdeslam the harshest sentence possible in France – life imprisonment without parole.

On Tuesday, lawyers said the 32-year-old Belgian had decided “to give up his right to appeal ... for reasons only known to him."

"This does not mean that he adheres to the verdict and the life sentence without parole,” a statement on Twitter read. "It means he has resigned himself to it."

None of the 19 other defendants, nor France's public prosecutor have appealed the verdicts, which are now final.

Eighteen suspects were given various terrorism-related convictions, and one was convicted of a lesser fraud charge. They were handed sentences ranging from two years to life imprisonment. Six of the defendants were tried in absentia and are presumed dead.

Abdeslam and four other suspects are due to go on trial in October in Belgium over the 2016 terror attacks in Brussels.

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