PARIS (AP) – A French court acquitted a man charged with harboring Islamic extremists after they carried out the 2015 Paris attacks, bringing a surprising end Wednesday to the first criminal trial from the country’s deadliest extremist violence since World War II.
The presiding judge said the Paris court found Jawad Bendaoud, 31, a confirmed street criminal, not guilty of providing lodging to two of the attackers and helping them hide from police when they were the most-wanted criminals in France.
Addressing Bendaoud at a verdict hearing, Judge Isabelle Prevost-Desprez said the evidence was “insufficient to prove your guilt.”
Bendaoud, who was standing behind a glass-enclosed dock, blew kisses to the public and his lawyers upon hearing of his acquittal. He faced up to six years in prison if he was convicted of harboring terrorists.
Bendaoud denied knowing the identity of the men to whom he rented a small flat in Saint-Denis. One of the two men he sheltered was Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the suspected ringleader of the Paris attacks.