A 42-year-old man, Audrey Mondjehi, has been sentenced to 30 years in prison for his involvement in aiding an Islamist attacker responsible for the deaths of five individuals at a French Christmas market in December 2018. Mondjehi was found guilty of procuring a firearm used by Cherif Chekatt, who carried out the shooting and stabbing spree in Strasbourg, northeastern France. Mondjehi and Chekatt had been former prison cell mates, as revealed during the trial.
Additionally, two other individuals received shorter prison terms for assisting Chekatt, while a fourth person was acquitted. The trial, held at the Court of Assize in Paris, marked a significant moment for the victims’ families, according to Arnaud Friedrich, a lawyer representing some of them.
Although Mondjehi was not convicted of a terrorism offense, as the court determined he was unaware of Chekatt’s intentions with the weapon, he expressed deep remorse during the trial, stating, “I would never have thought that he would have done that, I never thought that he was radicalized.”
The attack, which occurred on December 11, 2018, saw Chekatt, who had a criminal record and was on a watchlist for potential national security threats, enter Strasbourg’s historic center armed with a revolver and a knife. He indiscriminately opened fire, shouting “Allahu Akbar” (“God is greatest”), resulting in the deaths of five people and injuries to 11 others. Chekatt fled the scene but was later located by police after a 48-hour manhunt.
Though the Islamic State (IS) group claimed responsibility for the attack, doubts were cast by French authorities regarding the extent of their involvement. The victims of the attack included Antonio Megalizzi, a 29-year-old Italian journalist; Barto Pedro Orent-Niedzielski, a 36-year-old musician of Polish origin; Anupong Suebsamarn, a 45-year-old Thai national on vacation with his wife; Kamal Naghchband, a garage mechanic originally from Afghanistan; and Pascal Verdenne, a retired bank worker aged 61 from Strasbourg.