French Terror Suspect Hayat Boumeddiene Reportedly Alive in Syrian Camp, New Investigation Launched

According to a source close to the investigation, the National Anti-Terrorist Prosecutor’s Office (PNAT) opened a new preliminary investigation at the end of April targeting Hayat Boumeddiene for "criminal terrorist conspiracy", reports France 2. The opening of this investigation follows the testimony collected in March of another young French jihadist, arrested upon her return to France, the same source specifies. She would have told the investigators that she had crossed paths with Hayat Boumeddiene, in October 2019 in the Syrian camp of Al-Hol, controlled by the Kurdish forces.

With "internal complicity", the 31-year-old jihadist, imprisoned in this camp, would have planned her escape that month, under a fictitious identity. But it has recently been reported that Amedy Coulibaly’s companion had been killed during the violent clashes in the last stronghold of the Islamic State (IS) organization.

This is confirmed by the testimony of Dorothée Maquere, Fabien Clain’s sister-in-law, captured in a Kurdish camp. "[Hayat Boumediene] has been killed [...]. We cannot tell you the conditions, the hours, the moment... Everything has been rushed in recent days," she had told journalists doing a report in the camp.

Hayat Boumediene is suspected of having provided logistical support to her companion, Amedy Coulibaly, the author in 2015 of the deadly hostage-taking at the Hyper Cacher store in Porte de Vincennes. She is also accused of having participated in vehicle fraud in order to finance the projects of her late companion. She was also the subject of an international arrest warrant in the investigation into the January 2015 attacks.