Europe 1 with AFP 9:25 p.m., October 24, 2022

After a first repatriation during the summer, around fifteen women were repatriated to France during the week, from the jihadist prison camps in Syria.

Ten of them were indicted for criminal terrorist association, and were remanded in custody. 

Ten women repatriated last week to France from jihadist prison camps in Syria were indicted for criminal terrorist association and placed in pre-trial detention on Monday, AFP learned from the national anti-terrorist prosecutor's office (Pnat).

These women, who were the subject of a search warrant, had been placed in police custody upon their arrival on French soil during the night of Wednesday to Thursday in the premises of the General Directorate of Internal Security (DGSI) .

One of them was also indicted for crimes against humanity and genocide.

Some have also been indicted for evasion by a parent of his legal obligations compromising the health or safety of his child.

Another young woman, aged 19, taken to the Iraqi-Syrian zone when she was a child, was the subject of "educational care, no element having at this stage made it possible to require her under examination".

40 repatriated children

The state of health of a twelfth woman was deemed "incompatible" with presentation to an examining magistrate.

They are currently being taken care of medically and administratively.

All had been repatriated overnight from Wednesday to Thursday with three other women who, subject to an arrest warrant, had been indicted on Thursday and imprisoned.

Forty children were also repatriated with these fifteen women, aged 19 to 42, who had been captured in the territories of northeastern Syria and northern Iraq occupied until 2019 by the Islamic State group ( IS) and kept in camps under Kurdish control.

The children, many of whom were born on the spot, "have been handed over to the services responsible for child support and will be the subject of medical and social follow-up", indicated the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Among the children, seven are orphans or isolated, according to the Pnat.

Not the first repatriation

This is the second major repatriation operation in three months: on July 5, France proceeded to the return of 16 mothers and 35 minors.

Meanwhile, a woman and her two children had been brought back in early October.

In the hours following this second operation, the government spokesman, Olivier Véran, had declared on the LCI channel that there would still be "a few collective repatriation movements" and that "it would be done gradually".

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