In what is being called France’s first high-profile trial involving female jihadists, a group of women will face justice after failing to blow up Notre-Dame Cathedral with a home-made car bomb because they used the “wrong the type of fuel.”
The Islamic women stand accused of trying to detonate gas cylinders in their car’s boot outside Notre-Dame three years ago. France was reeling under a wave of Islamist terror attacks at the time that have successfully claimed 250 people since then. Many people believe France’s liberal immigration policies are the reason why.
Two of the five women, who pledged allegiance to Levant (Isil) and Islamic State of Iraq risk spending the rest of their lives in prison for their alleged part in the plot. Two other women who allegedly acted as accomplices face the same sentence for trying to aid escape.
The fifth woman may face a possible 30-year sentence, while the sixth is on trial for not alerting authorities.
The women were seized by the police after their Peugeot 607 sedan was found empty and parked near the famous cathedral which is thronged by thousands of tourists at any point.
The police swooped on them after a bar employee alerted them upon noticing a gas cylinder, which was found to be empty. But, five full ones in the car’s boot were discovered later. The failed attack was supposedly piloted by the now-deceased Rachid Kassim, a notorious French member of ISIS.
