Paris (AFP)
French parliamentarians and lawyers launched on Thursday appeals to President Emmanuel Macron to ask him once again to repatriate the French women and children of jihadists held in camps in Syria, where the situation is deteriorating.
"In the absence of any prospect of creating an ad hoc international tribunal, we call on the French authorities not to allow our nationals present in these camps to escape justice and to repatriate them to France, the only country where they are put to justice. , so that they account for their actions ", write four parliamentarians of the left and center-left in a letter to the President of the Republic.
The deputies Frédérique Dumas and Hubert Julien-Laferrière and the MEPs Sylvie Guillaume and Mounir Satouri returned on Wednesday from a trip to Syria, after being refused - by the Kurdish authorities - access to the refugee camps where are notably detained French nationals.
They are now requesting an interview with Mr. Macron to "discuss these subjects which are eminently important for France".
During their trip, they denounced pressure directly from Paris to prevent them from accessing the camps.
In another letter sent to the Head of State, lawyers for two French women detained by Kurdish forces in northeastern Syria call on Emmanuel Macron to respect the injunctions of the National Consultative Commission on Human Rights (CNCDH ) and the Defender of Rights, who also called for the implementation of repatriations.
In this letter dated March 3, consulted by AFP, Me William Bourdon and Me Vincent Brengarth ask "that France conforms to the position of its own independent administrative authorities".
"There is no reason today against the repatriation of our nationals, except for considerations of expediency which give way to the application of the law", they believe.
Some 80 French women, who had joined ISIS, and 200 children are held in Kurdish camps in Syria.
So far, Paris has maintained a case-by-case return policy for these children - 35, mostly orphans, have been repatriated so far - and considers that the adults should be tried on the spot.
© 2021 AFP