GENEVA (AP) — Switzerland’s attorney general has announced the indictment of a Swiss woman suspected of trying to reach Syria to join the Islamic State group with her four-year-old child in tow.
The 30-year-old from the Zurich area, whose name wasn’t released, was indicted for alleged violations of laws banning al-Qaida, IS and associated extremist groups. Attorney General Michael Lauber’s office said Thursday it was only the second time that an alleged jihadi traveler had been indicted in Switzerland.
The indictment alleges that she travelled illegally with her child from Egypt to Greece in December 2015 in hopes of crossing from neighboring Turkey into Syria. Greek authorities prevented her from continuing the journey and handed her over to Swiss authorities in January last year.
The suspect was not being held in custody but faces other restrictive measures.
Switzerland’s intelligence agency estimates that 89 people have left Switzerland since 2001 to participate in jihad, including 75 who went to Syria and Iraq. The agency says 24 are believed to have died, 14 have returned to Switzerland and with the rest are still believed to be in conflict zones.
Lauber’s office said some 60 criminal cases linked to “terrorism of a jihadist motive” are pending in Switzerland, with many involving suspected propaganda in support of banned groups like IS and al-Qaida.
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