Trial
During an 11-day jury trial in suburban Créteil, Garabedian, defended by Jacques Vergès, denied his earlier confession. However, he was found guilty and on 3 March 1985 he was given a life sentence. Nayir Soner, accused of buying bottles of gas used to make the bomb, was given a 15-year sentence, and Ohannes Semerci, in whose apartment ammunition and dynamite were found, received a 10-year sentence. The victims were defended by Gide Loyrette Nouel: principal Jean Loyrette argued on terrorism in general and against claims of Armenian genocide; his collaborators Gilles de Poix and Christian de Thezillat argued on the attack itself, to demonstrate the guilt of the three defendants. Several Turkish scholars — Sina Aksin, Türkkaya Ataöv, Avedis Simon Hacinlyian, Hasan Köni, Mümtaz Soysal — testified for the prosecution during the trial.
In 1995, over 1 million people in Armenia signed a petition to the authorities in France calling for the release of Garabedian from prison.
In 2001, after 17 years in jail, Garabedian was released on the condition he was deported to Armenia. He was greeted by Prime Minister of Armenia Andranik Markarian, who expressed happiness at Garabedian's release.
In an interview in 2008, Garabedian explained the Orly bombing was a protest against the hanging execution of Levon Ekmekjian in Istanbul in 1982, and he planned to destroy a Turkish Airlines plane, which was to transport high-ranking representatives of the Turkish secret services, as well as Turkish generals and diplomats. Garabedian claims that as a result of the attack 10 Turks were killed and 60 were injured.
Read more about this topic: Orly Airport Attack
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“Every political system is an accumulation of habits, customs, prejudices, and principles that have survived a long process of trial and error and of ceaseless response to changing circumstances. If the system works well on the whole, it is a lucky accident—the luckiest, indeed, that can befall a society.”
—Edward C. Banfield (b. 1916)
“A man who has no office to go to—I don’t care who he is—is a trial of which you can have no conception.”
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—Robert Frost (1874–1963)