France: attack in a network of cyber financing of terrorism

(illustration) Tens of thousands of people live in the al-Hol camp in Syrian Kurdistan according to the UN, including 12,000 foreigners from closely watched jihadist families.

AFP PHOTO / GIUSEPPE CACACE

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Searches, arrests and arrests.

Proceedings have been initiated against eight of the 30 people arrested since Tuesday in an operation targeting a fund transfer network to Syria and denounced by families of French jihadists.  

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Three people were indicted on Saturday for " 

financing of terrorism

 " and " 

criminal terrorist association

 ", according to a judicial source.

Of the three indicted, two were remanded in custody and the third released under judicial supervision.

Five other people were summoned directly to the criminal court to be tried "before the end of the year" for "financing terrorism", according to the Pnat, the national anti-terrorism prosecution.

Money for women and children detained in camps

 This operation was intended to dismantle a network using cryptocurrencies and funding members of al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group in Syria.

In particular, it made it possible to partially identify the destination of the funds.

These are channeled for the benefit of relatives in camps in Syria.

This device escaping any banking system would have made it possible to send money to the wives of jihadists, detained with their children in difficult conditions.

There are said to be around 150 adults and nearly three hundred French children imprisoned in Syria and Iraq.

Their families regularly demand their repatriation, especially in the name of health imperatives.

In that of al-Hol, in northeastern Syria, where tens of thousands of displaced people are piling up, 371 children died in 2019, reports Agence France Presse.

Also to listen

: The al-Hol camp in Kurdistan, surviving in subhuman conditions

For the lawyers and the Unified Families collective, who denounce these mass arrests, this money is essential to help these women in their survival.

So far, France has only repatriated 28 minors, mostly orphans or the children of the few mothers who agree to part with them.

See also

: Relatives of jihadists detained in Syria: complaints filed against Le Drian

Purchase of cryptocurrency coupons

This network for a year was very active.

It was based on the purchase, in France, of cryptocurrency coupons.

The survey reveals that dozens of people regularly went to tobacco shops to buy coupons worth between 10 and 150 euros.

These coupons were then credited to accounts opened from abroad by jihadists.

During their investigation, the prosecution would also have identified the head of this network.These


 are two French jihadists already targeted by an arrest warrant, who would have joined Syria in 2013, Mesut S. and Walid F, both elderly. 25 years old.

Suspected of being members of the Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) terrorist group affiliated with al-Qaeda, they have been the target of an arrest warrant since their default sentence to ten years in prison in April 2016.

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