Three young French people, taken to Syria as children by their jihadist parents, have brought a case to French justice for war crimes, claiming they were forcibly recruited by the Islamic State group, their lawyers announced to franceinfo, confirming an AFP report. These young people are among 5,700 detainees of 61 different nationalities who were recently transferred from Syria to Iraq, where they are imprisoned in Baghdad. They are also the subject of search warrants in anti-terrorism investigations led by Parisian magistrates, as reported by AFP.
According to lawyers Marie Dosé and Matthieu Bagard, these now adult children should be considered “war victims.” They criticized France for denying their repatriation from Syria and allowing them to be transferred to a squalid Iraqi prison where they face inhumane and degrading treatment.
A complaint was filed in early April for one of the young people, and two reports were issued for the other two, confirming the lawyers’ statements to franceinfo. The offense targeted is conscription, enlistment, or active participation of individuals under 18 in a non-international armed conflict.
In 2015, Mehdi was 12 years old when he was taken to Syria by his father, a jihadist known for being one of the French voices claiming responsibility for the November 13, 2015 attacks in Paris and Saint-Denis. Mehdi was “trained, from age 12 to 16,” in “informational warfare” and was thus “forced to participate actively” in ISIS hostilities.
His journey mirrors that of Yacine and Sofiane. The former was “forcibly taken by his parents to Syria” in August 2014, at age 11. Sofiane* arrived in Syria in 2014 at the age of 12 and was “recruited into the Islamic State police,” according to his sister cited in the lawsuit covered by AFP.
*These names have been changed.
