French jihadist Emilie König “doesn’t see why” she should go to jail



Emilie König has been held since 2017 in a camp in northeastern Syria managed by Kurdish forces – DELIL SOULEIMAN / AFP

  • Held in a camp in Syria since 2017, jihadist Emilie König pleads for her return to France.
  • In the event of repatriation, she does not “see why” she should go to prison.
  • Like other French inmates, she observed an eight-day hunger strike recently.

She has been held since 2017 in a camp in northeastern Syria managed by Kurdish forces. In an interview with AFP, French jihadist Emilie König pleads for her return to France when her three children were repatriated in January. Considered as one of the figures of the French jihadist movement and accused of having recruited for the Islamic State and of having called to carry out attacks in the West, she hopes to find her family, take training in accounting and why not go out on your own and have “a little bit of revenge” on life.

Left for Syria in 2012 as a pioneer, this 36-year-old woman from Lorient, twice widowed and mother of five children, had appeared in IS propaganda videos. In one, uploaded in 2013, she posed with a sawed-off shotgun. The intelligence services had intercepted his recurring calls to attack French institutions or to attack the wives of French soldiers.

“I have no blood on my hands”, she assures

“Of course I regret, because it (destroyed) my whole life,” says Emilie König, questioned about her rallying to ISIS, while ensuring that she does not want to be imprisoned. “I don’t see why I will go to jail. I think it’s unfair, because I didn’t do anything, I don’t have blood on my hands, ”she insists, without explaining the reasons that pushed her to join the ranks. of ISIS.

She was captured in 2017 in Chadadi, a city in eastern Syria, while the Kurdish forces continued their offensive to reclaim areas in the hands of the jihadists. But since the fall of the jihadist “caliphate” in March 2019, the Kurdish authorities have not stopped calling for the repatriation of foreign women and children.

A hunger strike to obtain his repatriation

However, most countries, especially in Europe, are reluctant to take back their citizens. Some, including France, have however repatriated a limited number of children, including those of Emilie König. “There is a part of me that died without my children,” she blurted out.

Like other French women, the jihadist claims to have recently observed an eight-day hunger strike to obtain repatriation before giving up. “I want to go back to France, I want to see my children again, I would like France to be accommodating in relation to that. I want to fix my mistakes, ”she says.



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