Mother Sentenced to 8 Years for Taking Children to ISIS-Controlled Syria

The permanent danger that Syria represents for its inhabitants did not prevent this young woman of Moroccan origin from staying there for nine long months with her three children. This great risk taken can only be justified by the charges brought against her by the Paris Court: criminal conspiracy with a terrorist aim and abduction of children. Even if she denies the evidence in the file, the Paris Criminal Court considers that it is the "only appropriate sentence" for the behavior of the defendant and her "absolute denial of the facts", reports the site lessentiel.lu.

For Rajae Moujahid, an architect’s daughter, her trip to Syria is in no way linked to terrorist activities. Appearing in custody, she claimed to have wanted to flee her husband - an Italian convert to Islam - supposedly violent and jealous, in a "fit of anger". Her trip to Syria had only been decided once she arrived in Turkey, she maintained. And yet, in March 2017, after the bloody attacks in France and, in particular, that of Nice, near her home in Antibes, this woman had joined Syria, taking with her her 9-year-old daughter and her two sons aged 7 and 5.

The Paris Court argues that this departure was "prepared, hidden and thought of as final". It argues that the young Moroccan woman, already married, was joining "a fighter" with whom she had an online relationship and whom she married, on her arrival in the Idlib region, in northwestern Syria.

Despite the contradictions of this young woman, all the facts link her to this organization. Indeed, Rajae was back in Turkey in December 2017, seven months pregnant, before being expelled to Italy and incarcerated in France, under a warrant. The mother was in possession of official documents from Ahrar al-Cham and her phone contained photos of jihadist propaganda, atrocities and weapons, as well as dead children and child soldiers.

The prosecutor deplored a "mass of contradictions and untruths": the mother had emptied the bank accounts of her children a month before the departure, destroyed her mobile phone and joined "knowingly a country at war".

According to the same source, the Criminal Court also awarded one euro in damages to the three children of Rajae Moujahid "traumatized by this long stay in Syria".