Five women repatriated to France on Tuesday from jihadist prison camps in Syria were indicted on Friday July 8 in Paris for criminal terrorist association and placed in pre-trial detention, we learned from a judicial source.
Some of them are also prosecuted for child neglect, said the same source.
Three women and a teenager, who turned 18 on Friday, have yet to be presented to anti-terrorism investigating judges at the Paris court.
The eight women, who were the subject of a French justice search warrant, and the boy were placed in police custody on Tuesday upon their arrival in France at the General Directorate of Internal Security (DGSI) and, for one of them, at the Anti-Terrorist Section (SAT) of the Paris police headquarters.
These women and the teenager were part of a group of 35 minors and 16 women repatriated to France from jihadist prison camps in northeastern Syria.
Read alsoRepatriated from Syria, jihadist Emilie König placed in pre-trial detention after being indicted
The children, seven of whom are unaccompanied minors, were cared for by the Yvelines Children's Social Aid.
As of Tuesday, seven women, targeted by an arrest warrant, were presented to investigating judges and indicted for criminal terrorist association and for certain child neglect.
An eighth woman, suffering from colon cancer, was indicted on Wednesday for the same offenses after "
medical treatment
", according to a source familiar with the matter.
All were remanded in custody.
This is the first massive repatriation of children of suspected jihadists and their mothers since the fall in 2019 of the "
caliphate
" of the Islamic State (IS) group, from which were notably planned the deadly attacks of November 13, 2015 in France.
Until then, only a few children had been brought back by the French authorities on a "
case by case basis ".
".
Among the 16 women, aged 22 to 39, is Emilie König, one of the best-known French jihadists.
Accused of having recruited for the IS group and called for attacks in the West, she had been placed by the UN on its blacklist of the most dangerous fighters.
Before this repatriation, 120 French women and nearly 290 children were detained in Syrian camps controlled by the Kurds, Laurent Nunez, the French coordinator for intelligence and the fight against terrorism, told AFP on Friday.
