PARIS (Reuters) -A French court on Friday found three members of a far-right group guilty of conspiring to prepare an act of terrorism in a trial over a violent plot against President Emmanuel Macron dating back to 2018.
The Paris criminal court handed the three men sentences ranging from three to four years in jail, with one to two years suspended each.
A fourth man was given a six month suspended sentence for having possessed a weapon.
Nine others were released.
The 13 accused, 11 men and two women aged between 26 and 66, were members of the Facebook group “Les Barjols” and have been on trial since Jan. 17.
Prosecutors have said members of the group planned to attack the president with a knife during a World War One memorial ceremony in eastern France in November 2018. They were also suspected of plotting attacks against mosques and migrants.
Lawyers for the accused had played down their clients’ intentions and described them as bumbling extremists with no plans for action.
Romain Ruiz, a lawyer for one of the nine who were freed on Friday, praised the court’s decision, saying it showed “one can be a little bit rational about anti-terrorism matters”. Prosecutors have 10 days to decide whether to appeal the verdict.
(Reporting by Juliette Jabkhiro, Dominique VidalonEditing by Tassilo Hummel and Mark Potter)
