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Anne Diana Clain (d) and her husband Mohamed Amri represented at their trial in the Paris Criminal Court, November 19, 2019. Benoit PEYRUCQ / AFP

The Paris Criminal Court on Wednesday (November 20th) sentenced Anne Diana Clain, Fabien's older sister and Jean-Michel Clain, to nine years in prison for trying to join them in Syria with her husband and four children between 2015 and 2016.

At the judgment, the couple remained impassive, but the relatives of Anne Diana Clain and her Tunisian husband Mohamed Amri burst into tears. While the prosecutor had sought ten years 'imprisonment for trying to reach areas controlled by the Islamic State, the Paris Criminal Court sentenced them to nine and ten years' imprisonment, with a two-thirds security and a definitive ban on French territory for Mohamed Amri.

The president of the criminal court has pointed out a " relentless desire to go to Syria ". " This project has failed against your will, you never gave it up voluntarily, " said Isabelle Prévost-Desprez to the attention of the defendants, not even after the attacks of November 13, 2015 claimed from Syria by the brothers of Anne Diana Clain, propagandists of the Islamic State organization. " You dragged your children on this deadly journey to your arrest in Turkey on the Syrian border ," insisted the president, denouncing facts " of extreme gravity ."

Living in an Islamist "utopia"

Anne Diana Clain, 44, had left France in August 2015 with Mohamed Amri, 58, their three children and his son from a previous union, all minors. They had failed to reach the areas held by the Islamic State Jihadist group, which was already home to Anne Diana's family, including her brothers Fabien and Jean-Michel . Intercepted on the Turkish-Syrian border in July 2016, they were expelled in September 2016 and imprisoned in France.

Mohamed Amri assured that there was no question of settling in Syria, but only to visit the Clain family and possibly " convince " them to return. The court sanctioned an attitude of " denial, even provocation ". Anne Diana Clain explained that it was a question of going to live with one's loved ones in an Islamist " utopia ". She claims today to have been blinded by her brothers and the ideology of the organization EI.

His " taking distance (...) may be a prerequisite for a positive evolution ," said the court. She was sentenced to a three-year socio-judicial follow-up with obligations. Faced with a sentence that " does not take into account Ms. Clain's evolution ," her lawyers Martin Desrues and Xavier Nogueras said they would appeal.

(With AFP)