Sixteen cyber-financing suspects of terrorism in Syria still in custody (Illustration) -

Avishek Das / SOPA Images / Sipa U / SIPA

Two days after a vast crackdown in France against a network of cyber-financing of terrorism to Syria, 16 people were still in custody on Thursday, we learned from a judicial source.

A total of 30 people have been arrested since Tuesday in this operation led by the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor's Office (Pnat), to dismantle a network using cryptocurrencies to finance mainly members of Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group in Syria.

Fourteen people were therefore released.

Relatives of women and children of jihadists arrested

But in addition to ten people listed "S" for Islamist radicalization, the net also led to the arrest of six relatives of women and children of jihadists detained in Syria, suspected of having used this network to send them information. 'silver.

Their arrest aroused the anger of the Unified Families collective, which defends the right to send money to "their daughters or their daughters-in-law" in order to help them "survive" in the "unsanitary" camps in Syria.

Most of them are among those released Thursday, said a source familiar with the matter.

"It is scandalous to have treated them like criminals," responded to AFP Me Marie Dosé, lawyer for four of them.

She stressed that the authorities were kept informed by these families of these remittances.

"On the one hand, France refuses to repatriate innocent children, on the other it criminalizes families because they refuse to see their children, grandchildren, nephews and nieces die," she added.

Cryptocurrency coupons bought in tobacconists

According to the Pnat, dozens of people residing in France have gone "repeatedly" since 2019 to tobacco shops to anonymously buy coupons (of cryptocurrency) with a value between 10 and 150 euros and credit them on accounts opened from abroad by jihadists.

The Tracfin anti-money laundering unit had reported it to the Pnat, which had launched investigations on January 24 for “financing of terrorism”.

These led to the identification of "two French jihadists" at the origin of this network, Mesut S. and Walid F, both aged 25, who joined Syria in 2013.

They are suspected "of being members of the Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) terrorist group affiliated with Al-Qaeda and have been subject to an arrest warrant" since their default conviction to ten years in prison in April 2016, detailed the Pnat Tuesday in a statement.

Tuesday's operation, carried out by several hundred officers from the judicial police, the General Directorate of Internal Security (DGSI) and the Raid, also led to 55 searches, and 21 people were interviewed as witnesses, according to the report. Pnat.

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  • Jihadism

  • Terrorism

  • Justice

  • Funding