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‘I’ll never abandon you’: the French fight to bring ISIS-linked women and kids home from Syria
Long, loaded with enough pathos to make you cry a river of tears...But the key bit, as far as we’re concerned: NEW JUSTICE MINISTER, NEW CHAPTER?Eric Dupond-Moretti, appointed as French justice minister on July 6, was a well-known criminal defence lawyer before taking on his current role. A year and a half ago, he called for the repatriation of all Frenchies — men, women, and children. Asked on French television in February 2019 if he supported the repatriation of French adults and children from Syria and Iraq, he responded with certainty. Trial there has led to the death penalty  sentencing — illegal in La Belle France since 1981 — and Frenchies must face justice at home. "Of course...we have to repatriate them, especially if they incur the death penalty, and judge them in La Belle France. They must have their right to a fair trial." So noble and idealistic! Anne, Lopez, and Riviere all expressed hope that Dupond-Moretti’s appointment would breathe new urgency into repatriations. Optimism is tempered, though, as former justice minister Nicole Belloubet had also issued strong statements backing the repatriation of Frenchies, saying that there was "no other choice" but to do so. Refusal to repatriate all detainees appears to originate from the foreign ministry. Though foreign minister Le Drian recognised conditions at al-Hol as a "pressure cooker that risks exploding", he has since stubbornly, and so far, successfully, insisted on case-by-case repatriations. He actively sought the trial of French ISIS suspects held in Syria by Iraqi authorities, where some were sentenced to death and executed — though a long-term plan for this appears not to have materialised. And there is the French pragmatism, without which the nobility has no rock to stand upon. Liberation’s report detailed that the French government had a general repatriation plan in place at the beginning of 2019 for both suspected jihadists and their families, including 149 children — but one eye was always glued towards opinion surveys that indicated widespread French public hostility to repatriation of anyone linked to ISIS.In the end, it is the public that will be knifed, shot up, exploded, gassed, and raped in the bathrooms and alleyways if these people are brought home, not their so-noble rulers. FRANCE FEARS RADICALISATION A 2019 survey for La Belle Franceinfo and Le Figaro found that two-thirds of the French public were against the repatriation of ISIS-linked children from camps in Syria, amid fears of the import of radicalised young people feeding into and replenishing networks of homegrown Islamic extremism. Related: Al-Hol: 2020-07-05 Human rights groups decry Turkish 'war crimes' in NE Syria Al-Hol: 2020-06-23 France repatriates 10 children from northeast Syria camps Al-Hol: 2020-06-16 Kurdish security forces recaptured three Islamic State women in Ain Issa who had escaped from Camp al-Hol Related: Roj camp: 2020-01-26 Kurdish authorities transfer 21 orphans from Syria’s Al-Hol camp Roj camp: 2019-03-02 How Thousands are Leaving IS' Last Syria Holdout Related: Hasaka: 2020-07-18 Three Russian soldiers injured as unknown drone strikes Syria’s Hasakah Hasaka: 2020-07-16 Powerful explosion hits city in northeastern Syria Hasaka: 2020-07-14 American convoy confronted and blocked by Syrian regime army unit in western Hasaka Posted by: trailing wife 2020-07-30 |
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