A man who claimed to have lived through the Bataclan massacre in 2015 in Paris, while not even there at the time of the jihadist attack, was sentenced today to six months in prison.
In particular, Cedric Ray, 29, was sentenced by a court in Versailles, southwest Paris, to 2 years in prison, of which 18 months suspended, for "attempted fraud" in order to receive compensation given by the authorities to the victims of terrorist attacks.
The young ambulance driver had described in detail to the media, what he "lived" in Bataklan on the night of November 13, 2015, during the attack of the jihadist group that killed 90 people.
According to the narrator, he was having a drink with two of his friends when he saw the terrorists. A "pregnant woman" had then "received the fire intended for him".
After the attack, Ray had asked to be reimbursed by the State Fund for Supporting Victims of Terrorism, but his request was not granted due to insufficient evidence.
He himself had joined groups of survivors of the attacks, had done a tattoo, like many of the victims, with Marianne, the symbol of the French Republic, in front of Bataclan.
A year after the tragic events, investigators were surprised to find that he had never filed a lawsuit, but realized that there were significant inconsistencies in his testimony. They also proved, with the help of the stigma of his mobile phone, that he arrived in Bataklan many hours after the attacks.
At least seven people have been convicted of attempted fraud or fraud in the wake of the November 7, 13 attacks in Paris and Saint-Denis, which killed 2015 people and injured hundreds more.