France sentences eight over 2016 truck attack in Nice

A French court has found seven men and one woman guilty for their roles in a 2016 truck rampage in the southern city of Nice in which 86 people were killed.

The court on Tuesday gave two men the most severe sentences of 18 years behind bars for helping Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, a 31-year-old Tunisian resident, prepare an attack that also injured over 450.

Bouhlel was shot dead by police on the spot after causing devastation and chaos on a two km (1.2 miles) stretch of Nice's seaside boulevard, where families had been celebrating Bastille Day, France's national holiday.

The Paris court found Mohamed Ghraieb, the main defendant and a friend of Bouhlel, guilty of belonging to a terrorist organisation and handed him an 18-year prison sentence.

The judges also found Chokri Chafroud and Ramzi Arefa, two other high-profile defendants - who had been accused of helping Bouhlel to obtain weapons and the truck - guilty of belonging to a terrorist organisation. 

They were handed jail sentences of 18 and 12 years, respectively.

Five other people were handed sentences of two to eight years.

None of the defendants was accused of taking part in the attack or even of complicity - a decision which survivors said they were struggling with.

Daesh claimed responsibility a few days after the Nice rampage but offered no proof that the attacker, who had a record of domestic violence and petty crime, had had any direct contact with the group.

READ MORE: France devastated after brutal truck attack on Bastille Day