a French woman who remained six years in Syria in jihadist land sentenced to seven years in prison

She reached Syria in 2014 and lived there for more than six years in jihadist groups. A 28-year-old French woman was sentenced Thursday, February 9 in Paris, to seven years in prison for “terrorist criminal association”. Born to Senegalese parents, Oumou S. grew up in the town of Les Mureaux, in Yvelines, before leaving illegally for Syria at the age of 19. “I was lacking in reference points, psychological and social stability”she explained to the criminal court.

She assured that she was confined to household chores, before having two children in 2016 and 2018, of which she is today without news. “I have never been interested in the question of jihad”but “I was hungry for freedom”, she said. While she claims to have wanted to leave the “despicable men” of these groups, she only made contact with the French consular authorities in 2020 after being arrested, she says, during a scouting without her children to cross the border with Turkey. “His departure questions his true motivation and his challenges” and she “could not ignore the criminal activities of these jihadist groups”, said the court in rendering its decision, which also includes a three-year socio-judicial follow-up. He pointed out, however, “his good conduct in detention” And “its fairly reassuring positive development”. “The life of this eternal misunderstood, without ties or anyone to support her, is only a flight forward”pleaded his lawyer Louis Heloun, who sees as “a glimmer of hope” the fact that the court did not retain the two-thirds security sentence requested by the prosecutor who had also requested eight years in prison.