Syria fighter Noura Firoud (24) from Vilvoorde returned to Belgium on Thursday with her three children. This is reported by the Halle-Vilvoorde public prosecutor’s office, which will take care of the woman’s three minor children. On Thursday morning, De Standaard had already announced that the woman would return today.
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Firoud was 17 years old when she left for Syria in 2013 with Houssien Elouassaki, a figurehead of Sharia4Belgium. When he died, Firoud remarried another Syria fighter from Vilvoorde, Ali Houdaifa Ammi. He too had left for Syria in 2013, but there is no trace of him anymore. He may have been killed by other IS fighters. The man was sentenced in absentia to five years in prison at the Sharia4Belgium trial.
Shortly after her departure, the prosecution prosecuted Noura Firoud before the juvenile court for participating in the activities of a terrorist group and recruiting fighters, but because the young woman was in Syria, no measure could be imposed on her at the time.
In February 2019, the Brussels criminal court sentenced her in absentia to a five-year prison term. The court held that Firoud had provided her husband with household assistance, had started a family with him and had raised and cared for their three children, which in the court’s view showed that she had actively served ISIS.
Firoud had three children in Syria, who are now 3, 5 and 6 years old. With them, she presented herself to the Turkish authorities in August, after which she was held in a detention center. She returned to Belgium on Thursday.
“On arrival she will be taken to prison”, the Halle-Vilvoorde prosecutor’s office reports. “The physical and psychological health of the children will first be checked. Subsequently, an appropriate framework is provided for them. In order to give this framework every chance of success, it is important not to give details about this. In this context we invite the media to respect the privacy of the children as much as possible so that their return and reintegration can take place in complete serenity. As in other files concerning minors, the Halle-Vilvoorde prosecutor’s office will not release any details about the concrete protective measures. ”
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