Couple on trial for joining Islamic State group in Libya

Chaïb A., obsessed with armed jihad and martyrdom, has been on trial with his wife since Monday March 6 before the special assize court in Paris for having joined the ranks of the Islamic State (IS) group in Libya in 2016.

The 42-year-old Franco-Moroccan born in Auxerre and his wife Dounia B., a 41-year-old Frenchwoman from Maubeuge (North), are on trial for association with terrorist criminals.

“Flawless ideological determination”

They are also being prosecuted for evading their legal obligations compromising the health, safety, morals or education of their two young children.

Chaïb A., radicalized for a long time and fed online with the precepts of the IS group and its desire to impose Sharia, had already undertaken in 2012 but without success to join Syria.

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At the end of 2014 and for a few months, the couple stayed in Egypt where they were in contact with the Toulouse jihadist Jonathan Geffroy.

Based in Louvroil (Nord), the couple then without a profession and living on social benefits, evaporated in May 2016 with 1,400 euros in their pocket.

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Chaïb A. was planning to go to Syria, but because of the setbacks suffered at that time by the IS group in this country, he is moving towards Libya.

There, the country is still in chaos since the uprising that brought down the regime of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, with rival powers, a myriad of armed militias and foreign mercenaries scattered in the country, against a backdrop of foreign interference.

Taking advantage of the absence of the state, IS established itself in several Libyan cities, making Sirte its stronghold in June 2015 before being driven out in 2016.

Chaïf A. will follow on his arrival a short military training led by an Egyptian, before joining in the south of Sirte about sixty African fighters who will move in the desert in order to avoid the bombardments.

While his wife stays in particular in Derna where the children are deprived of schooling and regularly of food and care, he returns to Sebha when the IS group withdraws from Benghazi.

Up to 30 years in prison

He will then spend a few months waiting in the desert after the battalion to which he belongs has suffered heavy losses and will eventually be arrested along with his family and all are taken into custody in Libya.

The family was handed over to the Egyptian authorities in April 2019 and then deported the following month to France.

At the start of the trial, Dounia B., who has appeared free since being placed under judicial supervision last June, admitted the facts.

In the dock, Chaïf A., black jacket and long hair tied up, did the same.

They face up to 30 years of criminal imprisonment.

The trial continues until March 10.