French justice has issued an international arrest warrant against Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, self-proclaimed caliph of the Islamic State (IS) group, and against Abu Mohammed al-Adnani, former spokesman, presumed dead, of the organization AFP learned Friday from a judicial source. These arrest warrants were issued Monday by anti-terrorist judges in the context of a criminal investigation opened on October 8 for "leadership or organization criminal criminal conspiracy association," said the source.
Abu Mohammed al-Adnani presumed dead
IS has claimed several attacks on French soil in recent years, including those of 13 November 2015, which left 130 dead and more than 350 wounded in Paris and Saint-Denis. A group of lawyers of victims of the attacks of 13-November had asked the investigating judges at the end of August that an arrest warrant be issued against the head of the IS, considering that it was "a minimum accomplice "of these attacks, according to France Inter. But the opportunity to issue such a mandate has been debated in the judicial world, while the chances of seeing the leaders of the Islamic State group effectively handed over to French justice are minimal.
Justice has finally decided to open a separate inquiry from that of November 13, which is coming to an end, to examine the responsibility of the two leaders of the IS in the wave of jihadist attacks that has affected France since 2015. Proclaimed in 2014 by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi over vast territories in Iraq and Syria, the "caliphate" was declared eradicated on March 23, but the security chaos in the region is raising fears of a resurgence of the organization. The latest appearance of Caliph al-Baghdadi dates back to a propaganda video on April 29, where he calls on his followers to continue the fight, just over a week after deadly attacks in Sri Lanka claimed by the group.
The IS leader, who appeared there for the first time in five years, had promised that his organization would "take revenge" for its killed members and that the fight against the West was "a long battle". Abu Mohammed al-Adnani, a former official spokesman for IS and responsible for his external operations, is presumed dead: according to several sources, he was killed on August 30, 2016 near Al Bab, in the north of west of Syria on the occasion of an aerial bombardment.