French court sentences eight on trial over 2016 truck attack in Nice

In this file photo taken on July 14, 2016 police officers stand near a truck, with its windscreen riddled with bullets, that ploughed into a crowd leaving a fireworks display in the French Riviera town of Nice. (AFP)
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Updated 13 December 2022
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French court sentences eight on trial over 2016 truck attack in Nice

  • Attacker Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel was shot dead by police on the spot after causing devastation and chaos on a two km stretch of Nice’s seaside boulevard

PARIS:A French court said on Tuesday all eight defendants on trial over a 2016 truck rampage in the French city of Nice were guilty for their roles in the crime, in which 86 people were killed.
Attacker Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel was shot dead by police on the spot after causing devastation and chaos on a two km stretch of Nice’s seaside boulevard, where families had been celebrating Bastille Day.
The court found Mohamed Ghraieb, the main defendant and a friend of Bouhlel, guilty of belonging to a terrorist organization. He was handed an 18-year prison sentence.
The court also found two other defendants guilty of helping Bouhlel to obtain weapons and the truck.


Bangladesh summons Myanmar envoy after border clashes

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Bangladesh summons Myanmar envoy after border clashes

  • A dozen villages in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar district have been affected by the violence

DHAKA: Bangladesh on Tuesday summoned the ambassador of Myanmar after civil war gun battles in the neighboring country spilled over the border, wounding a Bangladeshi girl.

Heavy fighting in Myanmar’s Rakhine state this month has involved junta soldiers, Arakan Army fighters and Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army militia guerrillas.

Authorities said around a dozen villages in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar district have been affected by the violence.

Twelve-year-old Huzaifa Afnan was struck by a bullet, while a Bangladeshi fisherman had his leg ripped off after stepping on a landmine near the frontier.

“Bangladesh reminded that the unprovoked firing towards Bangladesh is a blatant violation of international law and a hindrance to good neighborly relations,” a Foreign Ministry press statement said.

Myanmar’s ambassador to Bangladesh, U Kyaw Soe Moe, was summoned to the Foreign Ministry on Tuesday, where he expressed sincere sympathy to the injured victims and their families.

“My daughter was supposed to go to school, but she is on a ventilator,” Afnan’s father Jasim Uddin said. “My heart is bleeding for my baby girl.”

More than a million Rohingya have fled their homes in Myanmar, many after a 2017 military crackdown, and now eke out a living in sprawling refugee camps just across the border in Bangladesh.

ARSA, a Rohingya armed group formed to defend the persecuted Muslim minority, has been fighting the Myanmar military, as well as rival Arakan Army guerrillas.

On Monday, Bangladeshi border forces detained 53 ARSA fighters who had crossed the frontier.

Bangladeshi police officer Saiful Islam, commander of the local Teknaf station, said all detainees were being held in jail, except one fighter who was receiving hospital treatment for bullet wounds.

“These individuals have a history of living in the refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar and crossing into Myanmar,” Islam told AFP.