In 2015, a 26-year-old Frenchman of Armenian descent and a member of their community Yazidi, joined the Syrian branch of Al Qaeda. Today, this man was convicted by French court in 12 years imprisonment to participate in terrorist organisation.
From penalty Artyum Aloyan will have to make at least two-thirds of that, as he was deemed “dangerous”, according to the decision announced by the President of the Special Court of Appeal, David Hill.
Aloyan heard the sentence expressionless, while his mother and partner burst into tears. “Do not do that,” he told them, then continued to speak to them in Kurdish, his mother tongue. Aloyan was in danger of being sentenced to 30 years in prison.
Artyum Aloyan was born 33 years ago in Armenia, which at that time still belonged to the USSR. He arrived in France with his parents, who declared themselves political refugees, in 2022. Ten years later he converted to Islam, much to the displeasure of his family and the Yazidi community, whom Islamists consider heretics. He then left for Turkey and in 2015 for Syria, without telling his relatives, nor to his Christian partner and mother of their two children, born in 2008 and 2010.
In the courtAloyan acknowledged that he had fought in the ranks of the Al Nosra Front, insisting that the organization was not a terrorist organization but that “this is how the West sees it”.
“I do not think it is a crime to fight a tyrant (including Syrian President Bashar al-Assad). With Al Nosra, we fought soldiers against soldiers. “Neither women nor boys were killed,” he said.
Aloyan was arrested in Hatay, Turkey in August 2016, was sentenced to four years and two months in prison and then, in February 2019, extradited to France. He was found in possession of a text, written in French, justifying the armed jihad.
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