French court upholds life sentence for complicity in 2016 killing of police couple
A French court on Saturday, June 21, upheld a life sentence for a man convicted for his part in the 2016 killing of a police couple at their home in front of their young child. In 2023, Mohamed Lamine Aberouz, a 31-year-old French-Moroccan binational, was found guilty of complicity in the stabbings of Jean-Baptiste Salvaing and his partner Jessica Schneider by his friend Larossi Abballa in June 2016.
Abballa slit 36-year-old Schneider's throat in front of her three-year-old son and then stabbed 42-year-old Salvaing to death outside their home in the town of Magnanville, outside Paris. He was shot dead by a police response unit. Abballa claimed the attack on behalf of the Islamic State group in a chilling live video from the scene of the crime broadcast on social media. The assault took place at the height of a wave of terror and marked the first time that police officers were traced to, and killed, in their homes.
On Saturday, the Paris Special Criminal Court found Aberouz guilty on all counts including complicity in the murder of a person in a position of public authority and participation in a terrorist criminal conspiracy. His lawyers said their client would lodge an appeal with the Court of Cassation.
'Evil will'
Vincent Brengarth, one of his lawyers, said Aberouz was "devastated."
"The benefit of the doubt was effectively granted to the prosecution, which represents a reversal of a fundamental principle," he said.
Aberouz has maintained his innocence, saying he was at prayer the night of the attack. He has condemned the attack and insisted that Abballa acted alone. "It was his evil will," Aberouz said in court. "I regret having known him and having been fooled."
"I assure you that I have no responsibility for your misfortune," Aberouz said in the courtroom, looking at the families of Schneider and Salvaing.
According to the prosecutor, the accused was a member of the Islamic State group and present at the scene of the crime on June 13, 2016. The defendant's denials "do not stand up to scrutiny," said prosecutor Naïma Rudloff. "The sequence of events confirms that this could only have been done with the help of a second man," Rudloff added. "Can you imagine a man, in broad daylight, attacking two potentially armed police officers?"
Brengarth, one of the lawyers for the accused, had argued for his client's acquittal on the grounds of reasonable doubt, stressing the lack of "concrete evidence" against him. The accused's DNA was found on the victims' computer. His lawyers have claimed his DNA came from Abballa's car.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
France 24
5 hours ago
- France 24
Pogba signs for Monaco, hoping to revive career
The 2018 World Cup winner has made only 12 appearances across the last three seasons due to injuries, an 18-month doping ban and an extortion case in which he was the victim. Pogba failed a drugs test in August 2023 after a match for Juventus and has been free to return to football since March, although his contract at the Italian giants had been terminated last year. The midfielder will now play club football in Ligue 1 for the first time in his professional career. "I am determined to get back on the pitch, mentally ready, physically ready, it's just a matter of time," the 32-year-old told French television last weekend. Pogba played in the Le Havre youth team before signing for Manchester United in 2009. He made only a handful of first-team appearances for the three-time European champions before signing for Juventus in 2012. Pogba won four consecutive Serie A titles in Turin before rejoining United for a then-world record 105 million euros ($123 million). He moved back to Juventus three years ago but struggled with a series of injuries. In 2024, his brother Mathias was sentenced to three years in prison, with two years suspended, for his role in a plot to extort 13 million euros from Pogba in 2022. Pogba has scored 11 goals in 91 appearances for the France national team, playing a starring role and scoring in their World Cup final victory over Croatia seven years ago.
Local France
15 hours ago
- Local France
French senator accused of spiking colleague's drink sent for trial
Two investigating magistrates sent Senator Joel Guerriau for trial for the alleged November 2023 incident, said the source, confirming a report by France 2's Complement d'enquete, an investigative television programme. The judges' report, seen by AFP, says Guerriau, 67, is suspected of having spiked a glass of champagne with ecstasy that his colleague Sandrine Josso, now 49, was drinking. His intention, they alleged, was to rape or sexually assault her. Guerriau will also be tried for possession of drugs. "Joel Guerriau contests the allegations against him," said his lawyers, Henri Carpentier and Marie Roumiantseva. The truth will come in court "far from the caricatures and rumours put about until now", they added. "Mr Guerriau does not fear the truth: he desires it." Josso's lawyer Arnaud Godefroy said she was relieved at the decision, "which reflects the seriousness of her complaint". France's Horizons party, led by former prime minister Edouard Philippe, suspended Guerriau in November 2023 after he was formally charged with drugging Josso as part of a plot to carry out a sexual assault. Guerriau has denied any intention to sexually assault the lawmaker and has rejected the accusation that he deliberately drugged her, describing it as a "handling error". Advertisement The allegations against the senator come months after Frenchman Dominique Pelicot was jailed for 20 years for repeatedly drugging his wife so he and strangers could rape her. The shocking case, involving scores of men, received international coverage after his former wife, Gisele Pelicot, waived her right to anonymity and insisted on a public trial. Earlier this month, the French Senate passed a bill to include lack of consent in the country's criminal definition of rape, paving the way for its official adoption as law. Consent-based rape laws already exist in several European countries including Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden.
AFP
a day ago
- AFP
Video purported to show strike at Iran's Evin prison: what we know
lities escalated on June 13, when Israel launched an aerial attack on sites in Iran after again accusing Tehran of pursuing a military nuclear program. Iran responded with a series of missile and on Israel. nearly two weeks of deadly attacks, including US strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities, the countries accepted a ceasefire agreement on June 24. Iranian authorities said certain parts of Evin prison, which rights groups say holds Western detainees, political prisoners and opposition members, were A post on X claims to show a six second, black and white video appearing to be CCTV footage of an explosion at the entrance of the The video is filmed at a fixed angle, with text reading, "CAMERA 07" in the top left AFP also found the video circulating on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and Threads with additional posts in French, Spanish and Arabic garnering thousands of views and hundreds of interactions. The video was used by multiple media outlets worldwide, including the BBC, Le Monde, NBC News, The Guardian, France24, The Times and the New York Post. But as doubts emerged around the footage it was removed from several media websites, accompanied by messages explaining uncertainties about its authenticity. "AFP's Middle East video editors saw the images on Monday but given their dubious nature decided against using them," said Louis Massie, central editor-in-chief for video. Tal Hagin, information warfare researcher for FakeReporter, an Israeli watchdog group, published a series of posts on X explaining his suspicions on June 23 (archived here). Image A screenshot of one of Tal Hagin's posts on X arguing the image was AI-generated taken June 27, 2025 "At first, I believed it to be real," he told AFP June 25, but "once I began to receive several inquiries about its validity, I looked closer." He determined the video was likely AI-generated, using a real image of the prison as a visual "That, combined with several minute errors in the footage -- door was blown off while simultaneously not blown off -- and comparing it to real aftermath footage of the strike on the prison, I concluded with a high degree it was fake." Multiple inconsistencies An AFP analysis of the video also suggested the content was AI-generated. First, most professional video surveillance cameras automatically display the date and time on footage. This is not the case in the widely shared video. Even though an incorrect or different configuration of the date and time is theoretically possible, the absence of this information is dubious at an institution as secure as Evin prison. Image Screenshots taken June 25, 2025 of two videos circulating on social media which originate from a video surveillance camera In place of the date and time, the circulating video displays in the top left corner text reading "CAMERA 07," but the country's dominant language is Farsi, not English. The text is also suspicious as it lacks a relief or any shadow. The text briefly disappears at the moment of the explosion, as if it were added during an editing process. Image Screenshots of the viral video taken June 25, 2025 The image is in black and white, while the explosion allegedly occurred during the day. Video surveillance cameras only switch to monochrome mode in low or infrared light. This monochrome processing could also be used to mask certain graphical inconsistencies. Two screenshots, taken one second apart, identify the facade of the building as the Evin prison. In the first image, we observe: A closed metal door A sign in Farsi Trees without leaves or bushes in the foreground The text "CAMERA 07" in the top left corner In the second image, an explosion seems to happen. A cloud of smoke forms in front of the door, and a flash of light appears. But many elements are suspect: No reaction from the scenery : The trees and bushes in the foreground stay perfectly still, without the slightest tremor or perceptible movement. No visible fallout : No debris, nor shockwave, is identified in the image or on the ground Suspect light : The bright halo does not seem realistic -- it seems "glued" to the facade, without any bounce or reflection on the surrounding elements. A white film appears stealthily in the shot, without a visible link to the scene -- an artifact typical of animation or poorly finalized synthesis. Image Two screenshots of the video taken at one second intervals, captured June 25, 2025 Moreover, no visible projection of debris or shockwave is identifiable between the two screenshots. e Evin prison was touched by an explosion, as seen in a video by Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (archived here). But in all other images besides the purported CCTV footage, the entire building structure surrounding the door is on the ground, not only the door as in the viral Using an archival image? Another key element reinforced suspicions about the clip -- reverse image searches reveal its resemblance to an archive photo of the prison. A comparison with a photo taken in 2023 (left photo below) shows a near-perfect match to the point of view, plants, sign, trees and enclosure wall . The strong similarity suggests this image was used as a base in the process of generation or manipulation by artificial intelligence. The fact the plant elements are identical between the old photo and the purported current video further weakens the argument that the video shows an authentic scene. Image Comparison between a photo of the Evin prison from 2023 (left) and a screenshot of the viral video taken June 25, 2025 Moreover, the trees are sparce, which suggests the scene was filmed in winter. The images circulated by Iranian media officials regarding the 2025 strike on the Evin prison show lush greenery outside the walls. Image Screenshots taken by Tal Hagin on X Architectural differences were also identified when comparing the video to recent photos. The American disinformation watchdog NewsGuard has identified more than 50 sites and Telegram channels distributing deceptive content online discussing the conflict, including some related to influence operations by Iran, Russia and China. Since the start of the Iran-Israel war, AFP has found an increase in content manipulated or generated by AI. You can find these articles and other fact checks related to the conflict here.
