French Court Sentences 3 Women Returning from Syria for Belonging to ISIS

SadaNews - A French court issued a prison sentence yesterday (Friday) for 3 women returning from Syria, ranging from 10 to 15 years, for their conviction of belonging to the "ISIS" organization.

Jennifer Clan (34 years old) was sentenced to 11 years in prison, while her mother-in-law, Christine Allan (67 years old), received a 13-year sentence, with the possibility of conditional release after serving two-thirds of the sentence. Maialine Douhart (42 years old), who is the wife of Christine Allan's second son, was sentenced to 10 years in prison, with a deferred deposit authorization.

The three women arrived in Syria with their children in June 2014, refused to return to France, and lived with a group of women affiliated with the "ISIS" organization, according to the French news agency.

In September 2019, they returned to France accompanied by 9 children, aged between 3 and 13 years. They were arrested 3 months ago in the Kilis province, which borders Syria.

Earlier on Friday, Jennifer Clan, the niece of the Clan brothers, who claimed responsibility for the November 13, 2015 attacks in France and are believed to have been killed in Syria, said: "I do not ask for their forgiveness; it is an unforgivable act, but I offer them my deepest and sincerest apologies."

In mid-September, France repatriated 3 women and 10 children from prisons in northern Syria, where fighters with extremist groups and their families have been held, for the first time in two years.

These repatriation operations are a very sensitive issue in France, which has witnessed attacks carried out by extremist groups over the past decade, particularly the 2015 attack that resulted in the deaths of 130 people.

Paris had halted repatriation operations in the summer of 2023 due to a lack of willing participants, according to authorities, despite international condemnation. The European Court of Human Rights had condemned Paris in 2022 for failing to repatriate the families of French extremists.