Jawad Bendaoud, already sentenced for having provided an apartment for two jihadists who participated in the attacks of November 13, 2015, was sentenced, this Tuesday, February 15, to pay damages to the victims of the attacks and their relatives, decided the Court of Cassation. The high court, however, canceled the damages that he had been ordered to pay to the city of Saint-Denis, as well as to the tenants and owners of the building, where the police had stormed on November 18, 2015 and during which the two jihadists died.
Now 35, Jawad Bendaoud was sentenced on appeal to four years in prison for “harbouring terrorist criminals” on March 29, 2019, a final sentence. He had lodged an appeal only on the civil aspect of his conviction, that is to say on compensation. The decision of the Court of Cassation on Tuesday marks the judicial epilogue of this case. The Paris Court of Appeal had found that Jawad Bendaoud had delayed the arrest of the criminals, creating additional anxiety for the victims and their families to see new terrorist attacks occur.
Two men were tried alongside Jawad Bendaoud, Mohamed Soumah and Youssef Aït Boulhacen, brother of Hasna Aït Boulhacen, accomplice and cousin of Abaaoud who was also killed during the attack. Youssef Aït Boulahcen had been sentenced on appeal to four years in prison for “non-denunciation of a terrorist crime”.
Broadening of the notion of victim
On Tuesday, the Court of Cassation overturned his conviction, considering that he should benefit from family immunity, which exempts from prosecution a person who has not denounced the crime that a parent, brother, sister or spouse was about to commit. Mohamed Soumah had not appealed against his conviction at first instance to five years’ imprisonment.
In three other decisions rendered on Tuesday on the question of the constitution of civil parties in terrorism cases, the highest court of the judiciary has broadened the notion of victim. People who have sought to stop an attack or who have injured themselves while fleeing a place close to an attack will therefore now be able to constitute civil parties in these cases.
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