Anne Diana Clain, the older sister of Fabien and Jean-Michel Clain, who were the French voices of the Islamic State group, was sentenced Wednesday, November 20 to nine years in prison for trying to join them in Syria in a "deadly journey" "with husband and children. Her religious husband, Tunisian Mohamed Amri, was sentenced to ten years in prison, the maximum sentence. Their sentences were accompanied by a two-thirds security period. The president of the Criminal Court, Isabelle Prévost-Desprez, pointed out their "relentlessness to want to go to Syria".

"This project has failed against your will, you never gave it up voluntarily," said the magistrate to the attention of the defendants, not even after the attacks of 13 November 2015 claimed from Syria by Anne Diana's brothers Jean-Michel and Fabien Clain became propagandists of the Islamic State (IS) organization. "You dragged your children on this deadly journey until your arrest in Turkey on the Syrian border," insisted the president, denouncing facts "of extreme gravity".

The prosecution had taken ten years against both for this project "reflected", part of a family trajectory "unquestionably jihadist", at a time when the IS "chain of deadly attacks" that the Clain brothers "clearly claim".

Anne Diana Clain, 44 years old, had left France in August-2015 with Mohamed Amri, their three children and his son from a previous union, all minors. They had failed to reach the areas held by the jihadist group, where was already the whole family of Anne Diana, including his brothers, his half-sister, his eldest daughters. His mother had died recently. Intercepted in July-2016, they were expelled from Turkey in September of the same year.

Different stories

Detained for more than three years, Anne Diana Clain and Mohamed Amri have delivered divergent accounts. Mohamed Amri, a 58-year-old Tunisian who played a central role in converting Clain to Islam, said there was no question of settling in Syria but visiting their families. The court sanctioned an attitude of "denial, even provocation" - he had said he did not know what the date of 13 November - and sentenced him to a definitive ban on French territory.

Anne Diana Clain, meanwhile, explained that it was a question of going to live in family in an "utopia" Islamist, at a time when she supported the sharia. This woman, out of school in the 4th, mother of six children, claims today to have been blinded by her brothers and the ideology of the IS, which she ensures to be "out".

For the court, his "taking away" "may be a prerequisite for a positive evolution." She was sentenced to a three-year socio-judicial follow-up with obligations. The prosecutor had said "to doubt her total sincerity". In the eyes of the court, the couple, on the road, were well aware of the abuses committed by the jihadist organization and the high functions of propagandists occupied by Fabien and Jean-Michel Clain.

Anne Diana Clain, described as influential and living "in a world distorted by a romantic teenage ideology" in a psychological report of 2017, claimed to have conducted a long "job" in prison to understand that it was a "problem". Fanatic ideology "who" annihilated "his family.

Both will appeal. The lawyers of Anne Diana Clain, Martin Desrues and Xavier Nogueras, criticized a sentence "higher than the usual jurisprudence", which "does not take account" of its evolution.

At the end of the hearing, Anne Diana Clain, moved, had "asked for forgiveness" to her children for having "spoiled the life". They burst into tears at the statement of judgment.

With AFP