Paris Court Sentences French Citizen To 22 Years In Jail For Recruiting Militants -Reports

A court in Paris has sentenced a French citizen to 22 years in prison for leading a cell of French-speaking Islamist extremists and for recruiting French youths to fight in the ongoing conflict in Syria, the French broadcaster BFMTV reported

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 25th January, 2020) A court in Paris has sentenced a French citizen to 22 years in prison for leading a cell of French-speaking Islamist extremists and for recruiting French youths to fight in the ongoing conflict in Syria, the French broadcaster BFMTV reported.

Mourad Fares was originally detained in August 2014 while in Turkey, and was extradited a month later to France. According to the broadcaster, Fares was linked to a number of terrorist organizations, including Islamic State (banned in Russia).

Then-Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve stated that Fares played an integral role in recruiting young French citizens in the cities of Strasbourg and Toulouse to participate in the conflict in Syria and facilitate their travel to the middle Eastern country.

Fares himself traveled to Syria in 2013.

During the trial, Fares admitted that he helped a number of people cross the border into Syria, although he claimed that this was not a regular occurrence. He also denied leading any terrorist organizations, claiming to have only participated in the "logistics" of militant cells.

The court sentenced Fares to 22 years imprisonment for participating in, and leading, a terrorist organization, as well as funding terrorist organizations.