Jonathan Geffroy, a 40-year-old jihadist from Toulouse, and his wife Latifa, appear from Monday before the specially constituted Assize Court in Paris.
They are accused of having left for Syria in early 2015, with their two children, to join Daesh.
Captured in early 2017, Jonathan Geffroy assured during the investigation that he was "repentant".
To attest to his sincerity, he gave the magistrate a lot of information about the French jihadists he met on the spot.
He also gave a lot of information on the plans for attacks carried out by the brothers Fabien and Jean-Michel Clain, two Toulouse terrorists with whom he was close in Syria.
Questioned by the investigating judge, Jonathan Geffroy presented himself as a repentant.
"The proof is that I said everything I knew about the Islamic State and involving my former friends", hammered the Toulouse jihadist before the magistrate in January 2018. Captured in early 2017 by the Free Syrian Army ( ASL) while he was trying to flee Syria with his wife and two children, he assured that he was "ready to help France".
"I want to go back to a normal life.
I regret having made the choice to go to Syria and to have joined this group that I hate now.
I am not a terrorist.”
Jonathan Geffroy, 40, and his wife Latifa, appear, from Monday, before the specially composed assize court for "participation in a criminal association with a view to preparing a crime of attack on persons" and “A parent's evasion of his legal obligations that compromises the health, safety, morals or education of his child”.
They are accused of having left for Syria with their two children at the beginning of 2015 in order to join Daesh.
"I initially wanted to work in civilian life but I did not exclude the fact of fighting Bashar al-Assad", told the investigating judge this close friend of Abdelkader Merah, sentenced to 30 years in prison for complicity in the attacks. committed by his brother.
Close to Abdelkader Merah and the Clain brothers
Originally from Toulouse, like many other French jihadists who left for Syria or Iraq, Jonathan Geffroy indeed lived with the brother of the terrorist in 2010 in Egypt.
At the time, this convert had moved to Cairo with the aim of studying Arabic.
During his stay, he even had the opportunity to host Mohammed Merah who was passing through.
If he “condemns his acts, terrorists”, Jonathan Geffroy believes that it is necessary to “separate the acts” of the one who is nicknamed the “scooter killer” in two.
“He killed civilians and soldiers.
For the soldiers, I could understand his thinking because of the hatred he expressed towards the soldiers.
But for civilians, it's incomprehensible,” he told the magistrate who questioned him.
French #jihadist Jonathan Geffroy aka Abou Ibrahim, close to Sabri #Essid #Toulouse was reportedly captured by Turkish forces #AlBab pic.twitter.com/ImMWEN4vnf
— Jean-Charles Brisard (@JcBrisard) February 17, 2017
Access to this content has been blocked to respect your choice of consent
By clicking on "
I ACCEPT
", you accept the deposit of cookies by external services and will thus have access to the content of our partners
I ACCEPT
And to better remunerate 20 Minutes, do not hesitate to accept all cookies, even for one day only, via our "I accept for today" button in the banner below.
More information on the Cookie Management Policy page.
It was from Egypt that the jihadist and his family reached Syria, via Turkey, in February 2015. If he admits frankly that he “wanted to help the Islamic State group” and “fight”, he confides quickly quickly become disillusioned.
“Before leaving there, I had seen lots of videos that idealized the return of the caliphate with Koranic laws.
But when I arrived there, I realized that there was nothing to see.
»
In May 2015, Jonathan Geffroy joined the katiba - the battalion - Anouar Al Awlaqi, that of Fabien Clain who ensures with his brother, Jean-Michel, the propaganda of Daesh.
They are notably known for having claimed responsibility for the attacks in Paris and Saint-Denis.
If they are now presumed dead, they have long been among the highest French executives of the terrorist group.
Jonathan Geffroy, who was part of their entourage, indulged in a few confidences about them during the investigation.
Confidences about Daesh's "external operations"
The jihadist told the judge that he got his information from Othman, one of Jean-Michel Clain's seven children.
The teenager - he was then 16 years old - assured him that he was "at the head of external operations" of Daesh and had the task of choosing "combatants" to send them to France to commit attacks.
"I know that future external operations will be committed by children who will have grown up in the area and who, past adolescence, will be sent to the West, certainly to Europe and France to carry out suicide or other operations there", he said. he also reported.
The Clain brothers would also have planned to launch campaigns of "isolated attacks in the countryside" in order to "create terror" in French rural areas.
Jonathan Geffroy also provided the investigating judge with information about the Brussels attacks in 2016. Attacks which, he said, were not planned.
It was the arrest of Salah Abdeslam "that started it all".
“Othman told me that to avoid everyone being arrested, they targeted the airport directly.
What was targeted was a French nuclear power plant.
They had planned to drive there and blow up the cars.
»
A request to go back to school
Jonathan Geffroy also provided extensive information on the French jihadists encountered on the spot, specifying to the magistrate their names and their functions within the terrorist group.
He assures that he would have taken part in the fighting only twice, "without ever firing a single shot", after spending three weeks in a training camp in Jabar.
He would then have become a "sports trainer" before working alongside Fabien and Othman Clain, helping them to edit propaganda films.
In February 2017, Jonathan Geffroy and his family were taken prisoner by the Free Syrian Army.
After being handed over to the French authorities, he assured the examining magistrate that he was preparing to “leave these crooks of Islam”.
“I was thinking then of returning to Morocco to then negotiate with France.
When I say negotiate, it is giving the evidence against the people of the Islamic State as proof of good faith, knowing that I did the same thing with the FSA and the Turkish intelligence services.
»
The jihadist ended his interrogation with surprising optimism about his future.
He explained that he needed to “earn money for my wife and my children” and said that he had “applied to resume my studies in medicine or physiotherapy”.
Contacted by
20 Minutes
, his lawyer, Me Audrey Dufau did not wish to speak before the hearing.
Toulouse
The Toulouse jihadist Jonathan Geffroy, handed over to France with his family, has been indicted
Toulouse
VIDEO.
A Daesh jihadist, from Toulouse, captured in Syria
Justice
Court case
Daesh
attack
Syria
Toulouse
Occitania
Jihadism
Terrorism