Confirmed by multiple sources that two former #IslamicState women from #Belgium & #France have managed to escape from the #SDF detainee camp in #Roj, #Syria. It has happened two weeks ago, and both fugitives have been recaptured and imprisoned since (1/6)
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The Belgian is Cassandra Bodart, a convert from Jemeppe-sur-Sambre who joined IS in 2013. After two years, she wanted to leave - but she had to wait until the death of French-Algerian husband Abdel Hamid Derguiani in August 2017 to turn herself in (2/6)
thenational.ae/world/mena/in-…
thenational.ae/world/mena/in-…
The French woman is Saïda El Ghazi from the Lunel region - long known as a hotspot of jihad in France. She made headlines after she accepted to be separated from her two children in June, so they could be repatriated (3/6)
lepoint.fr/monde/syrie-la…
lepoint.fr/monde/syrie-la…
Both are rather atypical runaways, since they had openly renounced Islamic State and even didn’t wear a veil in the camp - which is quite dangerous there. Most of the earlier escapes were women still into IS, giving them access to networks and money needed to succeed (4/6)
Bodart, already sentenced in absentia to five years in jail by a Belgian court in 2018, was denied repatriation without further chance to appeal in December 2019. Last month, the UN Committee against Torture ordered Belgium to protect and assist her, but to no avail (5/6)
Her decision to flee might have been influenced by fear for the #coronavirus too. While Syria officially has only 19 cases and 2 deaths - and none in Kurdish areas - unease is growing in the camps that the pandemic is on its way, we were told by another Belgian detainee (6/6)
