Paris court sentences French Islamic State member Othman Garrido to 30 years

Verdict in Paris terrorism trial

The special assize court of Paris sentenced 32-year-old French national Othman Garrido to 30 years of criminal imprisonment on Tuesday, 22 September 2026. The sentence carries a mandatory two-thirds security period before any parole eligibility can be considered. Garrido, a native of Montpellier, spent eight years embedded within Islamic State in Syria between 2012 and 2020. The court acquitted him of a specific assassination charge but convicted him of terrorist criminal association and murders in an organized gang stemming from a double public execution in Syria in 2015. The advocate general had sought life imprisonment with a 22-year security period, characterizing Garrido as a relentless fighter who joined before the caliphate was declared and stayed until after its collapse.

Photographic evidence from Syria

Prosecution evidence relied heavily on digital files recovered from a mobile phone belonging to Garrido's wife. The photos established his presence at the 2015 public beheading of two Iranian men in Syria, where he was captured smiling alongside two known French jihadists who have since died. Prosecutors also entered an undated and unlocated image showing a partially masked man standing over a severed body, which formed the foundation of the assassination charge. While the advocate general argued that the clothing, posture, and physical build pointed directly to Garrido, the court chose to acquit him of that individual count. The prosecution compared Garrido to Tyler Vilus, another French Islamic State member handed a life term in 2021 for involvement in the same 2015 executions.

Defense and radicalization claims

Garrido contested allegations that he personally served as an executioner, speaking from the dock about his actions and online posts during his time in the Syrian conflict zone.

I did not touch a hair of these people!

Garrido claimed during the week-long trial that he grew up in an ultra-religious home under a father who converted to Islam, arguing that he departed for Syria under family pressure rather than personal violent conviction. He described himself as a participant who was terrified of death and sought approval, recounting an environment where social values were entirely inverted. He explained that posting online images of severed heads was done out of bravado to demonstrate loyalty to the organization.

Today I look at that with a lot of shame.

Extradition and six-year detention

Garrido traveled to Syria in 2012, prior to the establishment of the Islamic State caliphate across parts of Iraq and Syria in 2014, and remained until after the group lost its territory to an American-led international coalition in 2019. Turkish authorities arrested Garrido in 2020 and extradited him to France, ending eight years in the region. He subsequently spent six years in French pre-trial custody in a radicalization prevention wing before his case reached the Paris court.