Trial against parents of IS fighter for monetary support
Published: Thursday, Aug 15th 2024, 09:10
Updated At: Monday, Aug 19th 2024, 04:40
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The parents of an IS fighter who converted to radical Islam must answer to the Federal Criminal Court today, Monday. They transferred around CHF 50,000 to Syria for their son between 2016 and 2019 and have therefore been charged with contravening the Al-Qaeda/IS Act.
The young Swiss man converted to Islam and is a follower of the Salafist-jihadist ideology. He left Switzerland in April 2015 to join the terrorist militia Islamic State (IS) in Syria, where he completed military and religious training.
In Syria, he married a French woman who was also radicalized, according to the indictment from the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland (OAG). The young man was captured by Kurdish forces in June 2019. He is the subject of separate proceedings opened by the OAG.
The OAG accuses the parents, who live in the canton of Geneva, of transferring a total of around CHF 50,000 to their son between September 2016 and May 2019 at his request. The money is said to have benefited the victim, his wife, a friend and IS.
With check and middlemen
The payments amounted to between a few dozen and several thousand francs. In some cases, they were made via Western Union. However, the parents also used Ticket Premium, an anonymous check system that allows you to make payments online anonymously and without a bank account.
In the case of some larger amounts, the money was passed from one intermediary to the next. In May 2019, for example, the fighter's mother allegedly handed over 40,000 francs to two people who had traveled from Berlin especially for this purpose, according to the OAG. Of this, 20,000 francs came from the repurchase of a life insurance policy of the accused.
The public prosecutor's office will announce its motions during the main hearing. The trial is expected to last one to two days. (Case SK.2024.4)
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