France jails Louvre machete attacker for 30 years

Paris - Abdalla El Hamahmi wounded a soldier before being severely wounded when the patrol opened fire.

By AFP

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Published: Thu 24 Jun 2021, 11:00 PM

Last updated: Thu 24 Jun 2021, 11:01 PM

A French court on Thursday jailed for 30 years a man who attacked soldiers with machetes outside the world-famous Louvre museum in Paris.

Judges issued a sentence in line with prosecutor'' demands for Abdalla El Hamahmi, 33, who did not react from behind his coronavirus mask as it was read out to him via an interpreter.


A married father who did commercial work for a Middle East company, Hamahmi rushed at a group of soldiers patrolling the Louvre area early on February 3 2017, armed with a machete in each hand and wearing a t-shirt with a skull motif.

He wounded one soldier on the scalp before himself being severely wounded when the patrol opened fire.


He insisted throughout the trial that he had planned to protest against French policy in Syria by destroying art masterpieces inside the Louvre museum, which houses thousands of works including Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa.

Hamahmi claimed to have been surprised to encounter soldiers, who have patrolled central Paris since a wave of attacks that killed more than 250 in France from 2015.

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