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October 26, 2007

France: Algerian Muslim Terrorist Jailed For Life

Rachid Ramda (pictured) has today been given a life sentence by the Paris Assizes Court. The 38-year old Algerian must serve a minimum of 22 years behind bars, states Reuters. Prosecutor Delphine Dewailly had sought a life sentence with with limited parole. This is the sentence that was imposed today.

The Algerian - a member of the terror group GIA (Armed Islamic Group) - had already been found guilty of involvement in bombing attacks that took place in Paris in 1995. The worst of these was a bomb attack upon a Metro (subway) station in July. His sentence today was for being directly involved in the financing of the bombs in at least one of these attacks. This trial had started on October 1.

At Saint Michel Metro station a blast took place on July 25, 1995. Eight people were killed in the explosion and 119 were injured. The blast had been caused by a gas canister inside a glass container loaded with nails. The victims suffered severe lacerations. Video from the time can be found here.

August 17, 1995 - 17 people were injured after a bomb was placed in a waste bin in the Avenue Friedland in the 8th arrondissement.

September 3, 1995 - Four women were wounded at a street market on boulevard Richard-Lenoir in the 19th arrondissement. The bomb was hidden inside a pressure cooker.

October 6, 1995 - At Maison-Blanche station in the 13th arrondissement, 13 people were seriously injured. The bomb was made from a gas canister, in a container with nails. A contemporary news video can be found here.

October 17, 1995 - A subway train carriage of RER C is ruptured by a bomb explosion between the stations of Musee-d'Orsay and Saint-Michel. Thirty people were injured.

There were two bomb attacks outside of Paris. On September 7, a booby trapped car blew up in front of a Jewish school in Villeurbanne in Rhone, wounding 14 people. On August 26, an explosive device was discovered on the TGV rail line between Paris and Lyon. On September 4, 1995, another device was found near a market in the 15th arrondissement of Paris.

The fingerprints of a suspect, Khaled Kelkal, were found on the TGV bomb. A manhunt went into operation. On September 29 near Lyon in the south of France, Kelkal engaged in a shootout with police, and was shot dead. On November 1 and 2, in an operation mounted in Paris, Lyon and Lille, two other bomb suspects, Boualem Bensaid and Smain Ait Ali Belkacem, members of the Algerian terror group GIA, were arrested. These two individuals are now serving life sentences for their part in the attack.

Rachid Ramda had fled the country, and was arrested in Britain on November 4, 1995. He was then widely suspected to have been the financier of three of the bomb attacks.

In 1993 Ramda had already been found guilty in absentia and sentenced to death for a terror attack which happened in his native Algeria, at Algiers airport. 9 people had died and 123 had been injured. Ramda was allowed to walk free in France, even though his guilt as a terrorist murderer appeared certain.

Instead of extraditing Ramda to face justice in France, the British authorities kept him in custody for 10 years before finally bundling him onto a France-bound plane on December 1, 1995. Rachid Ramda was found guilty on other charges related to three of the 1995 bombings on March 29, 2006. He was sentenced to ten years' jail.

In April 2007 it was announced that Ramda would face trial for actual involvement via financing in the St Michel bombing. It seems he was also sent to trial for direct involvement in the Maison-Blanche attack. During the current trial, the main evidence against him was a bank payment slip that bore his fingerprints.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at October 26, 2007 2:45 PM

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