Life imprisonment required on appeal against Tyler Vilus, French jihadist of the Islamic State group – franceinfo

For two and a half years, “Vilus worked zealously for a totalitarian state founded on the reign of terror”, said the general counsel on Tuesday. The accused recognizes his membership in the extremist organization, but denies having committed atrocities in Syria. The prosecution believes, however, that it was indeed part of the ultraviolent “immigrant brigade” of ISIS. This brigade carried out massacres in the Aleppo region in early 2014. Several of the future protagonists of the attacks of November 13, 2015 in Paris were members.

Tyler Vilus was arrested at Istanbul airport in the summer of 2015, returning to Europe to carry out an attack. “I remind you of the last words of Tyler Vilus to Abaaoud [le coordinateur des attentats du 13-Novembre] : ‘When I go out, I act’. I have only one message to the court: above all not to let him go out or as late as possible “, said the general counsel.

In their pleadings, the three defense lawyers acknowledged Tyler Vilus’ membership in the jihadist movement, but argued that the charges against him were partly exaggerated. To the point of giving the feeling that the young man “almost single-handedly managed the Islamic State”, one of them was surprised. The lawyers asked the Assize Court to acquit him of the charge of organized murder, which arises from the video of the execution in the middle of the street of two prisoners, blindfolded and wearing an orange jumpsuit. This one minute nine second clip is the dependent element, which earns him life imprisonment. The verdict is expected late Tuesday afternoon.