The State soon to be ordered to review its copy? Three young French adults, taken to Syria by their parents when they were under 18, want to force the State, through a decision of the administrative court, to re-examine their situation with the hope of obtaining repatriation.
After a hearing at the end of November, the Paris administrative court should render its decision within a fortnight, their lawyer, Me Marie Dosé, said on Monday.
Youssef Boudouaia, Adem Clain and Amza Benabed, aged 22 to 23, were between 11 and 12 years old when their parents took them to Syria, determined to join the Islamic State (IS) organization. When the “caliphate” fell six years ago, they were locked up in camps run by Kurdish forces, where they came of age.
Requests rejected
Their requests for repatriation were rejected in 2024 by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which cited “the situation on site, particularly complex and dangerous” making “repatriation operations extremely difficult to carry out”. For Marie Dosé, there is an emergency for “these young adults who were taken to Syria and who chose nothing”.
Youssef Boudouaia, originally from Strasbourg and imprisoned in the Orkesh camp in north-eastern Syria, has multiple injuries all over his body and particularly on his head. “He is disabled,” says his lawyer who met him in Syria in February 2024. “He has epileptic seizures every day, it’s a nightmare for him.”
Adem Clain, the son of Fabien Clain, one of the jihadists who claimed responsibility for the attacks of November 13, 2015 in France, is also detained in the Orkesh camp where his lawyer noted a serious leg injury. Concerning Youssef Boudouaia and Adem Clain, the public rapporteur concluded before the administrative court that the refusal of repatriation was “arbitrary” and ruled in favor of re-examining the requests.
The third applicant, Amza Benabed, was transferred to Iraq, which his lawyer regrets having learned only “during the hearing”. “France has decided to transfer him to Iraq so that he can be sentenced to death with a sentence that will be commuted to a life sentence,” said the lawyer, who reminded the audience that her client is blind in the left eye, injured in the shoulder and head, and “regularly passes out.”
Last September, France repatriated ten children and three women. This operation was a first since July 2023.