PARIS: A French woman who travelled three times to Syria in support of her jihadist son was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Friday for being part of a terrorist conspiracy.

Christine Riviere, 51, was sentenced for her “unfailing commitment” to jihad and for helping a number of young women travel to Syria to marry jihadists including her son, Tyler Vilus.

It was the maximum sentence possible and included a stipulation that Riviere, a Muslim convert nicknamed “Mama Jihad” in the Fren­­ch press, will be ineligible for parole for seven years.

Vilus, 27, travelled to Syria to fight alongside the militant Islamic State group in 2012 or 2013.

Riviere, who visited her son three times in 2013 and 2014, denied fighting with the IS group, though she posted pictures on Facebook of decapitations and of herself holding a Kalashnikov.

“I didn’t want to push him to die a martyr, but that could happen,” she said of her son. “Then he would be in heaven, near Allah.” Friday’s verdict came barely a week after the conviction and sentencing of another French mother of a jihadist.

Published in Dawn, October 7th, 2017