The court proceedings are over by the conviction of four men in the case of murdering of French priest Father Jacques Hamel in 2016.
“Justice is done,” Archbishop Dominique Lebrun of Rouen said after the verdict on 9 March. “[The court] has discerned the good from the bad as much as possible, it has judged and for the good of society, for the good of the men present in the dock.”
The trial against four people on charges of terrorist conspiracy in Hamel’s murder began on 14 February.
The terrorist attacked the 85-year-old priest while he offered Mass in the church of Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray, in the northern French archdiocese of Rouen, on 26 July 2016.
Four people were held hostage during the attack, which also left one elderly Massgoer seriously injured.
Father Hamel was stabbed by two 19-year-old men. The second man was killed by police as they left the church. The four men convicted on March 9 were accused of criminal association with the attackers.
Three of them received imprisonment between eight and 13 years. A life sentence was given to a fourth man, a known Islamic State recruiter who was tried in absentia.