QUEBEC CITY: A
29-year-old who shot dead six worshipers at a Quebec City mosque in the worst
anti-Muslim attack in the West got life in prison Friday. Alexandre Bissonnette
will have to wait 40 years - longer than usual - before he can apply for
parole. In his decision, Judge Francois Huot rejected a prosecution request for
a 150-year sentence, which would have been the longest ever in Canada, saying
"subjecting a murder to a sentence that exceeds his life expectancy"
would be a cruel and unusual punishment under Canadian law.

But he also noted
the killer's "visceral hatred of Muslim immigrants". "You killed
six of your compatriots whose only crime was to be different than
yourself," Huot said in court. "With your hatred and racism, you've
ruined their lives, yours and your parents', and the crime you've done deserves
the greatest denunciation," he said.

A university
student at the time of the shooting, Bissonnette appeared to have been seduced
by nationalist and supremacist ideologies into committing this
"unjustified and deadly" massacre that sought to "undermine our
fundamental societal values", the judge said. The attack at the Quebec
Islamic Cultural Centre in the quiet Sainte-Foy neighborhood of Canada's oldest
city, he concluded, will go down in Canadian history "written in
blood" as one of this country's worst tragedies.

As the 246-page
verdict was read over a six-hour period, Bissonnette sat quietly in the packed
courtroom, gazing at his feet while his parents and several friends and family
of the victims wiped tears from their eyes. Outside the courtroom, Aymen
Derbali, who was left quadriplegic in the shooting, said he was "very
upset and astonished" that Bissonnette did not get more time. "I had
hoped for justice for the victims, for the people who died, and that the
sentence reflected the seriousness of the crime," he said. "This was
a very serious attack in a place of worship."

Surrounded by
members who lamented having to face Bissonnette at a parole hearing in the
future and relive the tragedy, mosque president Boufeldja Benabdallah said:
"We are completely stunned." On Jan 29, 2017, Bissonnette burst into
the Quebec City mosque and unleashed a hail of bullets on the 40 men and four
children who were chatting among themselves after evening prayers.

Security video
footage showed a cold-blooded killer strategically and methodically firing
dozens of shots, retreating to a safe area to reload his nine-millimeter pistol
at least four times, "like he was playing a video game", recounted
one witness. Six men were killed and five were seriously injured. The victims
were all dual nationals who emigrated to Canada over recent decades: Two
Algerians, two Guineans, a Moroccan and a Tunisian. They were a scholar, a
butcher, a daycare operator, a food industry worker, a public servant and a
computer programmer - all connected by faith.

Introverted and
educated, Bissonnette had been described after his arrest as a white
supremacist opposed to Muslim immigration but not affiliated with any group. At
the start of his trial in 2017, he said he had been suicidal, "swept away
by fear and by horrible despair", and deeply regretted his
"unforgivable" actions. He also told the court he hoped for a
"ray of hope at the end of the long, dark tunnel in which I lost myself on
January 29".

Survivors
testified about those harrowing moments under fire and their suffering since
the shooting: One leaving a trail of smeared blood on the floor while dragging
himself to a hiding spot, another still feeling pain from bullet debris left in
his leg after surgery. Many said they are struggling with anxiety, including
one man who said he now plots a safe exit whenever he goes out to a coffee shop
or a store. - AFP