A French court has sentenced a repatriated French national, Carole Sun, to 10 years’ imprisonment for her involvement in a terrorist criminal conspiracy linked to the Islamic State (IS).
Delivering its verdict on Thursday, a special criminal court in Paris found the 30-year-old guilty after determining that she knowingly participated in activities associated with the extremist group while in Syria.
Sun left France for Syria in July 2014 alongside her brother and was arrested by Kurdish forces in December 2017 during the collapse of the self-proclaimed IS caliphate. She was subsequently held in a detention camp in northeastern Syria before being repatriated to France on July 5, 2022, as part of the country’s first batch of returning nationals from the region.
During the trial, Sun told the court that she had been radicalised through online platforms. However, the presiding judge noted that she had lived among, or maintained close contact with, “high-profile individuals” associated with particularly violent acts and units linked to the November 2015 Paris terror attacks.
The court also heard that Sun’s second husband was a member of IS intelligence, whom she once described in a message to her mother as someone who “kills traitors.” Both her husband and brother are currently imprisoned in Iraq.
In her testimony, Sun admitted that IS ideology clouded her judgment at the time and acknowledged that she contributed to the group’s propaganda activities. She further described the harsh and intimidating conditions within the detention camp, where she spent over four years raising her children.
“It was frightening,” she told the court, adding that life in the camp resembled “a jungle,” with constant moral and psychological conflict, even among children.
French authorities say dozens of similar cases are still pending. According to the public prosecutor, more than one-third of French women who travelled to IS-held territories have since returned, with several already tried by special criminal courts, while others face proceedings in regular criminal courts.
The ruling underscores France’s continued judicial response to terrorism-related offences linked to the Syrian conflict, as the country seeks accountability for citizens involved in extremist activities abroad.
