24 and 28 years in prison for attack plans in Marseille during French presidential elections | Abroad

Together with Baur and Merabet, ten others were tried, one of whom is on the run. Two of those ten were acquitted, the others received sentences of two to thirteen years. They assisted the duo with weapons and ammunition.

Eight of the accused appeared free in court. One of them, who was sentenced to six years in prison, was taken into custody after the hearing.

The indictment is based on an extensive investigation, for which the French services collaborated with the Belgian and German police. Jihadists Clément Baur (30) and Mahiedine Merabet (36) were arrested in Marseille five days before the first round of the French presidential elections.

They had pledged allegiance to Islamic State via messaging service Telegram, but that video ended up with an undercover agent. More than 3.5 kilograms of TATP, an explosive that is often used by jihadists, was found in their apartment.

Merabet denied that the two wanted to commit a murderous attack, but admitted that he had considered using a salt shaker with TATP to sow fear at an election meeting of candidate Marine Le Pen. He would have thought about it beforehand.

Baur said he only wanted to cause material damage in retaliation for the attacks in Syria. He was later caught in prison making statements such as “Baghdadi (ex-leader of the Islamic State) is right, you shouldn’t talk to them, you should just ‘blow them up’.”

The investigators are convinced that Baur may have had ties with Belgian jihadists. He is said to have been in contact with the Verviers terror cell, which also included Abdelhamid Abaaoud, one of the coordinators of the 2015 Paris attacks.