French militant gets 30 years for Syria crimes

The French court found that Tyler Vilus supervised executions as a member of the religious police in the north-eastern Syrian town Ash Shaddadi. (AFP)

• Investigators believed Tyler Vilus was part of the ‘Al-MuHajjireen’ (the immigrants) brigade

PARIS: A French court on Friday handed a 30-year prison sentence to a militant for crimes committed in Syria between 2013-15 including overseeing the execution of two prisoners while a senior figure in the Daesh extremist group.
Tyler Vilus, 30, who was found guilty on all charges, was also accused of belonging to a terrorist group, heading a group of Daesh fighters and “aggravated murder.”
Public prosecutor Guillaume Michelin earlier asked the court for a life sentence, with no possibility of parole for 22 years.
Michelin said Vilus “hasn’t changed one bit” since his time with the Daesh.
“All the steps in the accused’s journey are interlocked with the construction of the caliphate,” said the prosecutor, referring to the Islamist-ruled area that Daesh had at the time carved out in Syria and Iraq.
“It is your responsibility to put a definite end to the bloodshed,” he told the court.
But the presiding judge said he wanted to give him “a glimmer of hope” so that he could “evolve,” even though he could have been sentenced to life on being convicted of all charges.
Investigators believed Vilus was part of the “Al-MuHajjireen” (the immigrants) brigade, a squad that tortured and carried out summary executions, which he had denied.
However, the court found that Vilus supervised the executions as a member of the religious police in the north-eastern Syrian town Ash Shaddadi, close to the Iraqi border.
In a 2015 video published by the Daesh’s media department, a man alleged to be Vilus is two meters away as two kneeling and blindfolded prisoners — one belonging to the Free Syrian Army rebel fighters and the other a member of Bashar Assad’s army — are executed with a bullet to the head.
His arrest and trial were seen as a major coup for the French security services, as Vilus is believed to have known many French militants in Syria.
Vilus had admitted to being in contact with the man French secret services believe is the mastermind of the November 2015 terror attacks in Paris, Abdelhamid Abaaoud.