VILLACOUBLAY MILITARY BASE, FRANCe // A young French mother whose two-year-old daughter was smuggled out of the country by her father and reportedly taken to militant centres in Syria arrived home on Wednesday after their reunion in Turkey.
Meriam Rhaiem, 25, made headlines in March with an emotional appeal to French authorities to recognise her baby girl as “the youngest French hostage”.
Mother and daughter arrived at Villacoublay air base outside Paris on Wednesday aboard a plane chartered by the French interior ministry.
Interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve thanked the Turkish authorities for their role in the family reunion.
Ms Rhaiem, who lives in eastern France, had said she was certain her French husband, whom she is divorcing and who is wanted under an international arrest warrant, was in Syria where he was seeking to join Islamic militants.
The father was arrested last weekend with their 28-month-old daughter Assia in Turkey, where he is still being held.
Assia’s father had failed to bring his daughter home after spending the day with her in October last year. He left for Turkey, where he called his wife regularly to ask her to join them.
He had also said he planned to cross into Syria with their daughter to join the Al Nusra Front, Al Qaeda’s official Syrian affiliate.
Mr Cazeneuve said on Wednesday that the father “had taken this child into the theatre of jihadist operations in Syria”, adding she was “in danger every day”.
According to Ms Rhaiem’s lawyer Gabriel Versini-Bullara, her husband had become radicalised after travelling to Mecca, asking her to wear the veil, criticising her for working and banning her from playing music to Assia.
* Agence France-Press
