Paris - The lone survivor of a team of ISIS extremists, Salah Abdeslam, who terrorized Paris in 2015 was convicted Wednesday of murder and other charges and sentenced to life in prison without parole for the deadliest peacetime attacks in French history.

The special terrorism court also convicted 19 other men involved in the assault on the Bataclan concert hall, cafes and the national stadium, which killed 130 people and injured hundreds, some permanently maimed. It also led to intensified French military action against extremists abroad and a lasting shift in France’s security posture at home.

The trial was held in a special courtroom built in Paris's historic Palais de Justice, lasted nine months, with over 2,000 plaintiffs and more than 300 lawyers involved.

ISIS claiming responsibility for the attacks had urged followers to attack France over its involvement in the fight against the militant group in Iraq and Syria.

Abdeslam, a 32-year-old Belgian, was given France’s most severe sentence possible. The sentence of life without parole has only been pronounced four times in the country, for crimes related to rape and murder of minors. Neither he nor his lawyer spoke publicly after the verdict.

Of the other defendants, 18 were given various terrorism-related convictions, and one was convicted on a lesser fraud charge. Some were given life sentences; others walked free after being sentenced to time served.

They have 10 days to appeal. The sentences were broadly expected, and those present expressed little surprise; mainly, a bit of relief.
-AP/Reuters