Three French women, including the niece of notorious jihadist propagandists, went on trial on Monday, September 15, accused of traveling to the Middle East to join the Islamic State (IS) group and taking their eight children with them. The defendants are being tried by a special criminal court in Paris that is sitting without a jury – standard practice in terrorism cases. Each of them faces up to 30 years in prison if convicted.
One of the women is Jennyfer Clain, a 34-year-old niece of Jean-Michel and Fabien Clain, who claimed responsibility on behalf of IS for the attacks on November 13, 2015, when 130 people died in shootings at the Bataclan concert hall and elsewhere. The Clain brothers are presumed dead. In 2022, they were sentenced in absentia to life imprisonment without parole.
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'Here, justice and law shall have the last word': at the November 13 attacks trial, the prosecution closes with heavy demands
The two other women on trial are Clain's sister-in-law, Mayalen Duhart, 42, and 67-year-old Christine Allain, the women's mother-in-law. Duhart is the only one of the three who is appearing in court as a free woman, saying she is now working at a bakery.
