The trial of the two sisters, who dispute the facts, will take place next week at the Federal Criminal Court. One of them is the mother of a young man convicted for wanting to defend the jihadist cause in Syria when he was a minor.
After the son, it is the mother and aunt’s turn to face justice for having supported the Islamic State organization. “This family jihad has a slightly unusual character,” notes Géraldine Casutt, associate researcher at the Swiss Center for Islam and Society at the University of Fribourg.
The two sisters, in their fifties, live in the canton of Vaud and will be judged on May 7 by the Federal Criminal Court in Bellinzona.
According to the indictment, which summarizes the facts with which the defendants are accused, the mother and her son, then aged 16, attempted for the first time, in November 2014, to join the Islamic State organization in Syria.
Before departure, the son made contact with jihadists whose numbers were provided to him by another jihad traveler, a Genevan who would be convicted by Swiss justice a few years later. Despite the advice received, the mother and son are unable to cross the border between Turkey and Syria, and return to Switzerland.
Accused of espionage
This is only a postponement. In February 2015, less than a month after the jihadist attacks against Charlie Hebdo and Hyper Casher in Paris, the mother, son and aunt managed to join the ranks of the Islamic State in Syria.
As soon as they arrive, they are separated. The women on one side, the young man on the other. But after three days, they asked to return to Switzerland.
“They were then accused of espionage, kept under investigation and questioned by members of the Islamic State organization for around twenty days,” writes federal prosecutor Andreas Müller in his indictment.
The family was held in Syria for a month before being released. She returned to Switzerland at the end of March 2015.
“They wanted to blow up the UN”
In his indictment, the federal prosecutor writes that during their stay in Syria, the mother and aunt declared that they were planning an attack against the United Nations in Geneva, but also that they had come to Syria to learn how to build a bomb with the aim of attacking Gay Pride, in Zurich or in Bern.
The two sisters allegedly made these remarks in front of a French woman they met in Syria. The latter, arrested by the French authorities on her return to France in 2015, then claimed that the Swiss “had plans to blow up something in Switzerland and take up arms […] They wanted to blow up the UN. But they didn’t detail anything, no specific project. They really seemed motivated to carry out an attack in Switzerland, but did not give a method of operation or a date.”
The two sisters deny having wanted to commit any attack.
Still in his indictment, the federal prosecutor accuses the mother of having financed the Islamic State after her stay in Syria. It reports six payments for a total amount of nearly 6,400 francs.
Incarcerated for approximately two months at the start of the criminal investigation, the two Vaudois sisters will appear free at their trial. Prosecuted for violating the federal law prohibiting the groups Al-Qaeda and Islamic State, they risk up to five years in prison. The mother, who does not have a Swiss passport, also risks expulsion.
When contacted, the defendants’ lawyers did not wish to speak before the trial.
Subject developed in La Matinale de la RTS Tuesday
Fabiano Citroni – RTS Investigation Department
