PARIS: A French mother who took her three children to Syria to join the militant Islamic State group in 2014 was sentenced to 14 years in jail in Paris on Friday.

Judges convicted Jihane Makhzoumi, 38, of charges including terrorism and child abandonment, highlighting her “informed participation in a criminal enterprise” described as “bloodthirsty”.

“Only a significant sentence could be imposed under these circumstances,” the judges added. Makhzoumi left France with her partner Eddy Leroux — another IS convert believed to have been killed in Syria —her three young children and a fourth child, the daughter of Leroux.

She was arrested at a Paris airport when she returned along with her three children in 2016 — Leroux’s daughter having apparently been left behind in Syria.

The prosecutor had told the court Makhzoumi had a personality of “appalling egocentrism” and had “at no time shown a capacity for empathy”.

Published in Dawn, November 23rd, 2019