A trial has begun in Paris for suspected militants of the terrorist group “Islamic State” accused of kidnapping and torturing four French journalists in Syria in 2013. The victims have identified their captors.
Five men stand trial, accused of being part of the group that held journalists Nicolas Hénin, Didier François, Édouard Elias, and Pierre Torres captive for over ten months. During the same period, ISIS militants also detained dozens of other hostages, including humanitarian workers.
The main defendant in the case is French jihadist Mehdi Nemmouche, who is already serving a life sentence for the murder of four people during the 2014 attack on the Jewish Museum in Brussels. Since his arrest on May 30, 2014, he had remained silent, but during the hearing in Paris, he spoke for the first time.
However, all four journalists, who were freed in April 2014, insist that he was their jailer. According to them, Nemmouche was the only one who never hid his face. They describe him as a brutal sadist and a psychopath.
In an interview with the TF1 television channel, Didier François stated that Nemmouche would leave the bodies of tortured victims overnight, and the hostages could hear their dying screams. During the trial, evidence of the psychological and physical torture endured by the journalists, as well as details of the inhumane treatment of hostages held by ISIS in Syria, will be presented.
