Compulsory reception: Signs of change in France’s strategy towards ISIS in 2020

Shaima Hefzy

The trial of a Frenchman, accused of recruiting youth to join the terrorist organization ISIS, with a 22-year prison sentence, sparked controversy over the fate of the French ISIS held in camps in Syria and Iraq.

On January 25, 2020, a Paris court sentenced Frenchman Mourad Fares (35 years) to 22 years in prison, who fled Syria in the summer of 2014, a year after his arrival, to incite dozens of young men to travel to Syria to fight, and he was led by a group of French language-speaking after a trial during which the accused was completely silent.

French statements about dealing with ISIS fluctuate between receiving them again from detention camps or trying them in Iraqi territory.

Over the past year, a trend on the French street has dominated the return of ISIS, including children, which is explained by Charles Lester, director of the counterterrorism and extremism program at the Middle East Institute in Washington, that many Europeans disagree with repatriation efforts and even see children as potential dangers.

“People have read anything related to ISIS as a negative threat, as a challenge, as a cost and as a danger,” Lester said in a newspaper interview. A poll released in February showed that two-thirds of the French people oppose returning children to their homeland.

France had a security doctrine that people should be tried in the regions where they had carried out terrorist operations, that is, under Iraqi and Syrian laws, not in France, which was followed by the proposal to conduct a trial for terrorists in Iraq.

The SDF is holding between 400 and 500 French people in its prisons, including about 60 ex-combatants, and Paris wants to conclude an agreement with Iraq on receiving its citizens after they leave Syria and try them.

According to government data, 1700 French fighters traveled to join ISIS, 300 of whom were killed, and France is awaiting the deportation of 700 men and 500 children, whom Erdogan threatens to deport to Paris.

The French newspaper “Le Figaro” said in November 2019 that Paris faces a terrorist threat and is concerned about the return of the jihadists, noting that the French security services are concerned at the same time with monitoring the French terrorists held by the Kurds, and the dangers that could come to the country.

An intelligence source told the newspaper that ISIS is no longer able to carry out attacks in France or in Europe the size of the Paris attacks that targeted a renowned theater in Paris and the Stade de France, and left 130 dead; but the source believes that the danger comes from the French ISIS or foreigners who fought in Syria and Iraq.

In mid-December 2019, French Foreign Minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, acknowledged that the issue of the trial in Iraq “is not possible in the short and medium term” especially due to the popular protests that are shaking this country, as Iraq has recently become a battleground between Iran and the United States.

But with the beginning of the year 2020, the tension in Iraq and the difficulty of conducting trials in the country, the French option in dealing with ISIS may change.

On January 11, 2020, French Justice Minister Nicole Belloubi announced, in an interview with the Liberation newspaper, that she currently does not see another solution other than returning French extremists held by the Kurdish forces in Syria to France.

“Until recent developments, we were thinking about the possibility of setting up a mixed court in Iraq – along with other European countries – to try foreign terrorists whose countries refuse to return them, especially the French, which is a court we would have supported … but the data changed,” Pelopi said.