8 convicted for their roles in 2016 truck attack that killed 86 in Nice, France

PARIS —  A French court Tuesday convicted eight people in connection with a truck attack more than six years ago by an Islamic State sympathizer that killed 86 people celebrating Bastille Day in the southern city of Nice.

The judge’s verdict followed 3½ months of sometimes heart-wrenching testimony from survivors of the July 2016 attack, who described the horrors and carnage they witnessed that summer evening on the French Riviera and the impact on their lives since.

The driver of the truck that plowed into crowds watching fireworks, Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, was killed by police the night of the attack.

The eight defendants, seven men and one woman, were convicted of helping him orchestrate a terrorist attack. The judge gave them prison sentences ranging from two to 18 years. Prosecutors had acknowledged that 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 Ghraieb and Chokri Chafroud, were convicted of terrorism charges and handed the longest sentences of 18 years.

The prosecution said that both had had “an intense relationship” with Lahouaiej-Bouhlel. Ghraieb had known him for 15 years, attended the same gym and had 1,278 telephone communications with him in one year.

Ghraieb’s lawyer, Vincent Brengarth, said his client would appeal.

Attack survivors reacted positively to the judge’s verdict.

“I am satisfied to see that the two main defendants have been sentenced to 18 years in prison, even if it is nothing compared with what we have experienced,” said survivor Laurence Bray. “This verdict is a relief.”

Caroline Villani, another survivor, said: “It won’t bring my family back — my mom, my son — but it’s a small victory that feels good.”

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Other defendants convicted Tuesday, such as Ramzi Arefa, were said to know the attacker’s plans more vaguely. Arefa was convicted of selling Lahouaiej-Bouhlel a weapon while allegedly not knowing his terrorist intentions. Arefa received a 12-year prison sentence.

The trial was painful for survivors and victims’ families. Some were able to come to Paris for the proceedings, but many watched on a secure online website or at a special viewing center set up near the Nice beachfront.

Among the victims, 33 were foreigners and 15 were children. More than 2,400 people are civil parties to the trial.

On July 14, 2016, thousands of people had packed Nice’s famed boardwalk on the Mediterranean coast to celebrate France’s national holiday. In 4 minutes and 17 seconds, Lahouaiej-Bouhlel rammed his 19-ton truck at full speed into a crowd of families, tourists and others on the picturesque Promenade des Anglais, killing 86 people and leaving 450 others injured.

While investigators found Lahouaiej-Bouhlel had voiced support for the Islamic State group, they found no clear proof linking him to Islamic State operatives. The group was active in Syria and Iraq at the time.

The truck massacre followed deadly Islamic State attacks at the Bataclan theater and other sites in Paris in November 2015 and at the airport and a subway station in Brussels in March 2016.