A French appeals court on Friday upheld the convictions of 16 people for the parts they played in the 2006 kidnapping, torture and murder of a young French Jew, Ilan Halimi. The sentence of one of the kidnappers, Samir Ait Abdel Malek, was increased by three years, Associated Press reported.
The ringleader, Youssouf Fofana, a French citizen of Ivory Coast descent, had chosen not to appeal his conviction and life sentence.
Two of Fofana's associates, Malek and Jean-Christophe Soumbou, were sentenced to 18 years behind bars in the appeals court verdict - an addition of three years to Malek's previous sentence. According to the AP report, a state prosecutor had sought 20 years for each. Soumbous' punishment was unchanged.
The appeals proceedings took place behind closed doors because two of the defendants were minors at the time of the crime. The court upheld a nine-year sentence against the woman who had taken part in luring Halimi into the gang's trap. She was a minor at the time.
Six of the people who took part in kidnapping Halimi received sentences of 12 to 15 years. Seven others received sentences ranging from eight months to 11 years in prison. An apartment building guard who made available the room where Halimi was held got 10 years.
One of the 17 defendants on trial was acquitted.
Halimi, 23, was held captive for over three weeks. He was found naked, handcuffed and covered with burn marks near railroad tracks south of Paris on Feb. 13, 2006. He died on the way to the hospital.
Twenty-four people, including eight women, were convicted in the original trial last year on charges that included kidnapping by an organized group and failing to assist a person in danger.