Thread: France convicts 7 back from Syria

France convicts 7 back from Syria

By PHILIPPE SOTTO and LORI HINNANT The Associated Press Posted: July 7, 2016 at 3:48 a.m. Updated: July 7, 2016 at 3:48 a.m.

Credit: AP French police detain a suspect during a raid on May 13, 2014, in Strasbourg that netted
some of the men convicted Wednesday of terror charges.

PARIS -- A French court Wednesday convicted seven men who returned from weeks among the ranks of Islamic State extremists in Syria, including the brother of one of the suicide attackers who targeted Paris in November.

The defendants, ages 24-27, were sentenced to prison terms ranging from six to nine years for taking part in a group recruiting French jihadis to join a "terrorist group" in Syria in 2013-14 -- namely the Islamic State extremist group -- and for participating in military training and other activities.

Karim Mohamed-Aggad, the older brother of one of the extremists who attacked Paris' Bataclan concert hall on Nov. 13, received a nine-year term, the harshest penalty among the seven, since the prosecutor said he was one of the ringleaders.

Mohamed-Aggad claimed that he went to Syria only for humanitarian purposes and accused the French government of putting him on trial instead of his brother Foued, who returned to France with a Kalashnikov and suicide explosives strapped to his body in an operation that killed dozens in Paris.

Foued also went to Syria with the group.

In its ruling, the Paris court said that while some of the defendants left Syria of their own free will, Karim Mohamed-Aggad was "in no hurry to return" to France and "showed a persistence in his active interest for jihadism."

After the verdict, Mohamed-Aggad's lawyer, Francoise Cotta, told reporters that the ruling was "a decision of fear, returned in a France of fear, by a judge who is here to respond to the fear."
"He certainly suffered from his name," Cotta said.

Mohamed-Aggad was in a prison cell when he learned about the Nov. 13 attacks in Paris that left 130 victims dead. From the beginning of the trial, he insisted that it should center on what he did in Syria, not what his younger sibling did in France.

"You choose your friends, not your family. My brother did what he did -- and it concerns only him," Mohamed-Aggad said.

The group of 10 from the city of Strasbourg, all from families with origins in North Africa, left for Syria in December 2013. Two of them died at a checkpoint soon after arriving. Foued, the youngest, stayed behind after everyone else bailed out, and returned later to France for the Nov. 13 attacks. The assault on the Bataclan, where he died, was the deadliest in a series of attacks that night.

All seven men on trial said it was a humanitarian desire, not religion, that spurred their departure for Syria. They insisted that they had never used their guns, despite photos showing some of them sitting in a restaurant with Kalashnikovs on their laps.

Soon after arriving, the men testified, they realized they had made a mistake. They were collected by the Islamic State, taking daily lessons in Shariah law and later weaponry. One said he was jailed and tortured by the extremists. Another said he realized that there was nothing humanitarian about what the extremists were doing in Syria.

"We found ourselves stuck there like idiots," said defendant Radouane Taher.

The seven made their way back to France singly or in pairs in March and April 2014. They were arrested in raids in May of that year.

The judge and the prosecutor questioned all sharply about their motives for returning, especially Mohamad-Aggad, who at one point told his brother back in Syria: "You will reach Allah ahead of me, but I'll join you soon." Mohamad-Aggad said at the time he believed that his sibling was going to carry out a suicide operation in the war zone.

"We risk our lives to come back from Syria. We're treated like apostates there. We come back, we're treated as terrorists," Mohamad-Aggad said on the first day of the trial.
A Section on 07/07/2016

France convicts 7 back from Syria | NWADG

Strip them of citizenship and send them back...justice served at ZERO cost to taxpayers.