3 French women stand trial for joining ISIS in Syria with children
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – A special criminal court in Paris began on Monday the trial of three French women accused of joining the Islamic State (ISIS) in Syria with their children, in a case that has revived debate in France over the return of women linked to the extremist group.
AFP reported that one of the defendants is 34-year-old Jennyfer Clain, niece of Jean-Michel and Fabien Clain, two notorious jihadist propagandists who claimed responsibility on behalf of ISIS for the Nov. 13, 2015, Paris attacks that killed 130 people. The Clain brothers are presumed dead but were sentenced in absentia to life imprisonment in 2022.
Clain is on trial alongside her sister-in-law, 42-year-old Mayalen Duhart, and her 67-year-old mother-in-law, Christine Allain.
Each faces up to 30 years in prison if convicted of criminal association with a terrorist enterprise. Clain and Duhart are also charged with failing their parental obligations for taking eight children, aged 3 to 13, into a war zone, according to AFP.
The three women traveled to Raqqa, ISIS’s de facto capital in Syria, in 2014. After ISIS lost control of the city in 2017, they remained with retreating militants before attempting to cross into Turkey in 2019. Turkish authorities detained them with nine children, eight of whom were born in France, and later expelled them to France.
The trial, which is being held without a jury in line with French terrorism cases, is expected to conclude on Sep. 26.