Véronique Loute, mother of Belgian radical Islamist Sammy Djedou, is under investigation on suspicion that the 65,000 euros she sent to her son between 2013 and 2016 may have helped finance the Paris Bataclan massacre.
The investigation into Ms Loute is part of a broader investigation into her son who was a senior member of the Islamic State terror group after travelling from Belgium to Syria but was allegedly killed in a U.S. drone strike in 2016, RTBF reports.
Since there has been no official confirmation of the death of Sammy Djedou, authorities in Belgium have continued to pursue a case against him for being complicit in the planning of the 2015 Bataclan massacre and the Brussels attack in 2016.
According to an unnamed jihadist who returned to Belgium, “Sammy the Belgian” was a known recruiter of suicide bombers.
The jihadist told investigators: “He was in Raqqa and we could meet him from time to time. He was discreet and did not mix too much with others. He was the one who would approach people who would be sent to Europe to commit an attack.”
Djedou’s mother, who is being investigated for funding terrorism, claims she did not know about her son’s activities.
“I did not know at all what he was doing in Syria, he told me nothing about his activities, only after his death did I learn that he was an ’emir’ of the Islamic State,” she said.
Ms Loute could face new charges of conspiracy in the 2015 Paris terror attacks as investigators claim she had sent two payments in February and March of 2015 when officials believe the attacks, which are estimated to have cost 100,000 euros, were being planned. Loute has denied the allegations, claiming she stopped speaking to her son months before the attack took place.
The financing of terrorism has become a central focus for international investigators, particularly in France where prosecutors identified over 400 individuals thought to be helping to finance terrorist activity.
The Islamic State is believed to have cash reserves in the billions of dollars and has also switched much of its revenue streams toward smuggling migrants into Europe, according to some experts. Gerald Tatzgern, the head of Austria’s anti-human trafficking force, claimed that the terror group made as much as $300 million from smuggling in 2016.