PARIS: A French court on Monday sentenced five members of an all-female jihadist cell to between five and 30 years in prison over a failed bid to detonate a car bomb outside Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris. Madani, 22, was arrested a few days after the failed attack in a Paris suburb along with two other defendants, Sarah Hervouet and Amel Sakaou, who were each sentenced to 20 years. The court heard how Madani posed as a male jihadist online to try to recruit women for IS and won over Gilligmann in messages exchanged online. Madani’s lawyers described her as a lonely young woman with half-baked attack plans and a death wish – a far cry from the prosecution’s characterisation of a determined gang of would-be killers. Her lawyers argued she had acted out of love for a fictitious jihadist named Abou Junayd, for whom she left her husband.

Source: New Strait Times October 14, 2019 22:30 UTC