The solitary survivor of the group responsible for the attacks in Paris in November 2015 was found guilty of terrorism and murder.
Salah Abdeslam was sentenced to a remarkable complete life term for his involvement in the 130 fatal gun and bomb attacks.
19 additional males were found guilty by the court, six of whom are thought to be deceased.
The trial, which is the largest in contemporary French history, started in September.
In order to piece together the events surrounding the bloodiest attack on French soil since World War Two, victims, journalists, and the families of the deceased waited up outside the specially constructed courtroom in Paris for more than nine months.
The attacks across bars, restaurants, the national football stadium and Bataclan music venue on 13 November 2015 saw hundreds injured alongside those killed.
Abdeslam was adamant at the start of the trial, calling himself a “soldier” of the so-called Islamic State (IS) organisation.
In his final words to the court, he later apologised to the victims and said that he was “not a murderer or a killer” and that a murder conviction would be “an injustice.”
He also testified that he opted against setting off his suicide vest the night of the attack and instead dumped it in a suburb of Paris.
The court, however, did not think that Abdeslam had suddenly changed his mind since it recognised evidence that the suicide vest was flawed.
Given his complete life sentence, his chances of being released after 30 years are extremely slim. It is the harshest punishment for criminals in France, yet courts there rarely impose it.
Édith Seurat, one of the attackers’ survivors, told the BBC that the trial had not alleviated her suffering and had left her feeling dissatisfied.
She stated, “We still have our wounds, traumas, dreams, and bruises.” “We must continue to live with that.”
The father of one of those slain in the 2015 assaults, Stéphane Sararde, told the BBC that the drawn-out trial had made it easier for him to accept the tragedy.
“It was nine terrible months,” he said. “We had to wait, we had to go back into this tragedy in order to go into the details of what happened.”
But he hoped the experience would make it easier to be able to live without his son Hugo, he added. survivor Arthur Dénouveaux said he was unsure what to think now that the verdict had been delivered.
“I feel a mix of being happy that it’s done, having a lot of questions on what the future holds, and proud to have been part of this wonderful trial,” he said. “The verdict shows it was worth the time.”
