A 34-year-old French woman who travelled with relatives to Syria to join her husband, an ISIS fighter, has expressed regret about joining the extremist group and said she takes responsibility for her actions.
Jennyfer Clain was speaking in Paris at the opening of her trial for criminal conspiracy.
“I would like to say that I am not here to deny [anything]. I joined this terrorist and murderous group, I brought my children [to Syria] when I should have protected them,” said Ms Clain, who is the niece of France's most infamous ISIS propagandists, the Clain brothers.
“I am guilty. I regret it so much, but I cannot go back. I am presenting myself sincerely and transparently so that you can take all aspects into account and judge me fairly."
Ms Clain is on trial with her sister-in-law, Mayalen Duhart, 42, and 67-year-old Christine Allain, the women's mother-in-law. The women travelled to Syria in 2014 to join Jean-Michel and Fabien Clain. The men made headlines when they claimed responsibility on behalf of ISIS for the November 2015 attacks across Paris that killed 130 people.
The women all face up to 30 years in prison if convicted and a €450,000 ($529,000) fine. The defendants are being tried by a special criminal court in Paris that is sitting without a jury – standard practice in terrorism cases.
Ms Clain and Ms Duhart also stand accused of failing their legal obligations as mothers for having exposed their children to ISIS and its ideology, compromising “the health, safety, morality or education of [their] child, in connection with a terrorist enterprise", the charges said.
In their decision to refer the three women to a criminal court, the investigating judges noted that they “remained for a long period of time” within extremist groups. “It was with full knowledge of the facts” that Ms Allain and her two daughters-in-law chose to join ISIS in Syria after the "caliphate" was established, according to the investigating magistrates' indictment seen by AFP.
Ms Allain's lawyer said she had worked hard to turn her life around. “She still considers herself a Muslim, but she has only known one interpretation of Islam, the wrong one,” he said. “She hates the person she had become.”
Born in a Roman Catholic family, the Clain brothers converted to Islam in the 1990s under the influence of the Tunisian husband of their eldest sister, Anne-Diana. The brothers, who lived near the south-eastern city of Toulouse, converted Anna-Diana, their wives, their half-sister and their mother, French daily outlet Le Monde reported.
Anna-Diana's daughters, Jennyfer and Fanny, were married at an early age within their community, known for its extremist views. Ms Allain resigned from her job because she objected to working beside men. Jennyfer was taken out of school at 10 and married at 16. She moved to Cairo with her husband but returned to France to give birth.
The men all left for Syria at the height of ISIS's power, in 2013 and 2014. The women are believed to have joined them as housewives.
In 2017, after the fall of the ISIS stronghold of Raqqa in Syria, the women fled to Azaz, near the Turkish border, before attempting to enter Turkey in 2019. They were accompanied by nine children between ages three and 13. Eight of the children had been born in France.
The group was arrested by Turkish police and eventually expelled to France, where they were charged with criminal association with a terrorist enterprise. The children were given into the care of social services. Ms Duhart is the only one of the three who is appearing in court as a free woman, saying she now works at a bakery.
The Clain brothers are presumed dead. In 2022, they were sentenced in absentia to life imprisonment without parole. Ms Clain's husband, Kevin Gonot, is serving a life sentence in Iraq. Ms Duhart's husband, Thomas Collange, is held by Kurdish forces in north-east Syria.
The trial is scheduled to last until September 26.
