A French court has sentenced Mehdi Nemmouche, a 39-year-old French jihadist, to life in prison for his role in holding four journalists hostage in war-torn Syria over a decade ago. Nemmouche was found guilty of kidnapping the reporters on behalf of the Islamic State group from June 2013 to April 2014. The life sentence includes a minimum term of 22 years before he becomes eligible for parole.
During the trial, all four journalists testified about their harrowing experiences, identifying Nemmouche by his distinct voice and mannerisms during their captivity. They described how he terrorized them, making sadistic jokes while holding them hostage. Nemmouche, however, maintained his innocence regarding the allegations, asserting only that he was a fighter for IS, denying that he was their captor.
From the outset of the proceedings, Nemmouche portrayed himself as a freedom fighter against former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, claiming that his actions were part of a broader struggle against dictatorship. He went so far as to affirm in court, “Yes, I was a terrorist and I will never apologise for that,” distancing himself from the brutalities committed during his time with IS and aligning himself with ideologies he claimed were justified by historical necessity.
Nemmouche’s past as a jihadist is marked by his affiliation with both Al-Qaeda and IS, both designated as terrorist organizations in the European Union. He has already been serving a life sentence in Belgium for a separate incident involving the brutal killing of four people at a Jewish museum in May 2014, shortly after his return from Syria.
The rise of IS followed the outbreak of the Syrian civil war in 2013, during which the organization gradually seized territory and declared a caliphate that extended into Iraq. A U.S.-backed military offensive ultimately dismantled this proto-state in 2019. French prosecutors have noted that during the period from 2012 to 2014, IS abducted at least 25 Western journalists and aid workers, with several being executed.
The four journalists—Didier Francois, Edouard Elias, Nicolas Henin, and Pierre Torres—were seized within ten days of each other while reporting in northern Syria. They underwent a harrowing captivity, ultimately being released in April 2014. Henin later recognized Nemmouche from a facial composite linked to a 2014 terrorist attack in Brussels and provided a chilling account of the violence he endured, including reports of torture and mock executions of other detainees.
Investigators revealed that Nemmouche’s radicalization began in the French foster care system and intensified during his incarceration prior to his departure for Syria. In addition to Nemmouche’s sentence, the court has also convicted two other jihadists tried in absentia, both presumed dead, along with other associates involved in the captivity of the journalists. Oussama Atar, a Belgian jihadist and senior IS commander, received a life sentence for his involvement in the 2015 Paris attacks and the Brussels bombing in 2016.
Another defendant, Salim Benghalem, who is accused of being the primary jailer of the hostages, was similarly sentenced to life in absentia. Abdelmalek Tanem, a French jihadist accused of being one of the jailers, received a 22-year sentence despite the lack of identification from the journalists. Prosecutors maintained that he played a significant role among the French-speaking IS jailers. Finally, Kais Al Abdallah, a Syrian jihadist linked to the kidnappings, was sentenced to 20 years, which he denies.
