France, like many other Western countries, is dealing with the dilemma of what to do with women and children of their nationality who were taken prisoner in Syria and Iraq as members of the Islamic State. The below article from today's, Le Figaro reports that France has now repatriated several mothers and their children back to France from Syria where they had been held in prisoner camps. It appears that the woman will be prosecuted in France for their association with ISIS, but I wonder how severely. Will they again be free in a couple of years to raise their children to be jihadists like their parents?
The below article is translated by Fousesquawk.
Repatriated from Syria, the jihadists Emilie Konig placed in pre-trial detention after being charged
By Le Figaro with Agence France Presse
Posted yesterday at 17:44, updated yesterday at 22:01
Caption: Emilie Konig, originally from Brittany, left for Syria in 2012
Originally from Brittany, this 37-year-old woman is accused of having recruited for the Islamic State and called for the commission of attacks in the West
Emilie Konig, one of the most well-known French jihadists, repatriated Tuesday, July 5 from Syria, has been placed in pre-trial custody after having been charged by an anti-terrorist judge, AFP reported during a hearing before a liberty and detention judge (JLD).
This 37-year-old woman, accused of having recruited for the Islamic State group (EI) and having called for the commission of attacks in the West, was the subject of an arrest warrant and was charged upon her arrival in Paris with criminal terrorist association.
Regain a "woman's life"
"I am very tired," she whispered in the dock-this brunette with a grey complexion, dressed in a grey fleece (top) and black pants, after the liberty and detention judge announced the ruling. The magistrate, to whom Emilie Konig had said she wanted to regain "a woman's life" informed her that the investigations would continue to "retrace her (activities)".
Originally from Lorient (Morbihan), she had left for Syria in 2012. Appearing regularly in propaganda videos, she had been placed by the UN on the blacklist of the most dangerous combatants. She is the mother of 5 children, 3 of whom were born in Syria, (and) who were repatriated to France in early 2021. In an interview with AFP in April 2021 at the Roj camp, she stated that she wanted to "return to France". "She has the intention to fully cooperate with French justice," stated her lawyer, Emmanuel Daoud.
"She has returned to explain herself and to try and see her children again as soon as possible, according to a period (of time) that she does not control," added Attorney Daoud stressing that she was "fully conscious of having caused a great deal of suffering to her family."
Eight persons in custody
Twenty-five minors and sixteen mothers in the camp for jihadist prisoners in Syria since the fall of the Islamic State were repatriated Tuesday, in response to repeated requests from NGOs and families who say they are awaiting the end of the "inhumane case-by-case policy". Eight mothers were placed in custody "in the execution of an investigative warrant," and, " eight others are the object of arrest warrants," the national anti-terrorist prosecutor's office explained in a statement.
A 17-year-old minor and seven women were placed in custody by the General Directorate for Internal Security, stated a source close to the case. The eighth was placed in custody by the Anti-Terrorist Section (SAT) of the Paris police prefecture. It is the first such mass repatriation of children and mothers in France since the fall of the Islamic State "Caliphate" in 2019. Among the mothers subject to the arrest warrant(s) aside from Emilie Konig, six other women appeared in court Tuesday for criminal terrorist association and for certain others among them for moral or material abandonment of a minor by a guardian, a source close to the case indicated Tuesday evening. An eighth woman will appear Wednesday before an examining judge, only being presented with the arrest warrant at the end of the afternoon due to being in medical care, according to the same source. This woman has colon cancer. It is the first such mass repatriation in France of children and mothers since the fall of the Islamic State "Caliphate" in 2019.
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