A Tunisian national was sentenced late Wednesday to life imprisonment without parole, France’s most severe sentence possible, over the killing of three people in a basilica in the French Riviera city of Nice in 2020, one of multiple attacks that year linked to Islamic extremism.
The attack was the third in less than two months that French authorities attributed to Islamic extremists, and prompted the government to raise its security alert to the maximum level.
On Oct. 29, 2020, Aouissaoui killed worshippers Nadine Vincent, 60, and Simone Barreto, a 44-year-old French-Brazilian woman, and church worker Vincent Loquès, 55.
France at the time faced anger from many Muslims around the world for defending the cartoons and for its policies against Islamic radicalism.
It came while France was holding a trial over the 2015 attacks on satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, which published caricatures of Islam’s prophet.
