France: 5 women jailed over failed attempt to blow up Notre-Dame cathedral in 2016.

(Paris) Five French women have been sentenced to between 5 and 30 years in jail for trying to detonate a car bomb near Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris in 2016. On the 4th September 2016, police were alerted to an abandoned grey Peugeot 607 vehicle parked near the cathedral. Inside, officers found half a dozen gas canisters, three jerry cans of diesel and a half-smoked cigarette utilised

as a timer detonator. The contents of the vehicle had been doused in diesel, but the cigarette had failed to ignite it.  Investigators said the bomb attempt would probably have been successful had it not been for "the  choice of diesel as the accelerant which is extremely difficult to lignite with a naked flame

The two main defendants, 22 year old Inès Madani, and 32 year old Ornella Gilligmann, had parked the car near Notre Dame in the middle of the night which if it had exploded it would have caused a devastating firebomb which would have killed or injured at least 60 people in a nearby bar. They were sentenced to 30 years and 25 years in prison respectively.Two other defendants, Sarah Hervouet and Amel Sakaou, who acted in concert with Madani and Gilligmann, were each sentenced to 20 years. A fifth woman, Samia Chalel, was also tried for allegedly helping hide Madani. She was sentenced to five years in prison.

The case is said to be the first to involve a group of women attempting to stage an Islamist attack in France.