Eight people have been convicted for their role in a truck attack more than six years ago by an Islamic State sympathiser that killed 86 people celebrating Bastille Day in Nice.
Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel was shot dead by police after he drove his truck at full speed into a crowd who were watching fireworks on 14 July 2016.
The attack at Nice’s famed boardwalk Promenade des Anglais killed 86 people including 15 children and left 450 others injured.
The eight defendants, seven men and one woman, were convicted of helping him orchestrate a terrorist attack and the judge gave them prison sentences ranging from two to 18 years.
The judge’s verdict followed more than three months of testimony from survivors of the attack.
Prosecutors agreed not all of them had a clear connection to terrorism or knew what Lahouaiej-Bouhlel planned.
The pair most closely associated with Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, Mohamed Ghraeib and Chokri Chafroud, were convicted of terror charges and handed the longest sentences of 18 years.
The prosecution said both had had “an intense relationship” with Lahouaiej-Bouhlel as Ghraieb had known the attacker for 15 years and had 1,278 telephone communications with him in one year.
Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack a few days after it happened, but offered no proof that the attacker, who had a record of domestic violence and petty crimes, had direct contact with the group.
