“Her state of mind, she allowed me to tell you, is her desire to cooperate with French justice”, declared Tuesday, July 5 on franceinfo master Emmanuel Daoud, lawyer for Emilie König, repatriated from the Roj camp in Syria to France. Accused of being a Daesh recruiter, she was indicted for terrorist criminal association and remanded in custody. “She will have to explain because the way she has been portrayed does not correspond to reality”added Emmanuel Daoud.
franceinfo: What was Emilie König’s state of mind when she arrived in France?
Emmanuel Daoud: Her state of mind, she authorized me to tell you, is her desire to cooperate with French justice, to provide all the information that will be requested of her, to answer the questions that will be put to her by the examining magistrates. She hopes one day soon to find her five children. For three of them, who were sick enough, to protect them, she had accepted that they leave and be separated from them, which is always terrible for a mother, that’s what she did the last year and being on the same territory as them, on French soil, is a huge relief for her.
“If we want to fight terrorism effectively, we must allow these women to explain their journey.”
Me Emmanuel Daoud, lawyer for Emilie Königat franceinfo
It is the specialized judges at the prosecution, the police officers of the DGSI, the associations of victims of attacks who say it and who agree on this analysis, it must be implemented as quickly as possible.
She is on the US blacklist of international terrorists. Today she is aware of her journey and fully intends to cooperate?
It will be necessary to confront the file with the reality of Emilie König’s career. I will not go into the substance, I will reserve that for the investigating magistrates. She will have to give explanations because the way she has been portrayed does not correspond to reality. It is much more contrasted and we must not forget how young these women were and that for some of them, they were under the influence and that we were in a particular context. It’s not black and white.
What do you think of this initiative by France to proceed with this grouped return?
It was really time, it’s a moment of relief, because all these women and all these children could die any day now.
“It was time for the hour of justice for humanity to finally ring and for France to respect its international commitments, for France to protect these children, for the end of this inhuman and degrading treatment to ring once again.”
Me Emmanuel Daoud, lawyer for Emilie Königat franceinfo
We must not forget that many children, 165 children, and women still remain. We must not lower our guard, we must continue to fight, for them and for them, so that they are all repatriated. There is only this solution for France to respect its commitments, humanitarian law, to protect children.