French Islamic State fighter and wife on trial in Paris for terrorism

Frenchman Jonathan Geffroy is accused of terrorist offences in Syria, as are his wife and mother. Geoffroy has provided valuable information for French anti-terrorism investigators.

Geffroy, 40, sits alone in the prisoner’s box at the Paris Special Criminal Court.

His two co-accused – his wife, Latifa Chadli, and his mother – are under judicial control and are free to sit in the open court, on the seats just outside the glass-walled high security box.

The couple’s now eight-year-old child is a civil plaintiff in the case, and is represented by a victims’ support organisation.

Geffroy and Chadli, who arrived in the Syrian war zone in early 2015 with their then 2-month-old child, were arrested by members of the anti-Assad Free Syrian Army in 2017, and subsequently handed over to the French authorities.
Links to Bataclan killers

Originally from Toulouse, Geoffroy converted to Islam in 2007, and met and married Chaddi in Morocco.

On their arrival in Syria in February 2015, Geffroy was assigned to the fighting brigade known as Anwar al-Awlaki.

Members were predominantly French-speaking, and the group was dominated by the brothers Jean-Michel and Fabien Clain, also from Toulouse, who worked as propagandists for the Islamic State armed group and were both sentenced to life in prison for their part in planning and promoting the November 2015 Paris attacks.

In November 2016, Geffroy contacted French anti-terrorist police, saying he wanted to escape with his family from Syria.

The trial got underway on Monday and will wrap up on 23 January.

Source: yahoo