Three men suspected of joining Islamist militants in Syria gave themselves in to French authorities yesterday after a day of high confusion which exposed security shortcomings in France, including poor collaboration with Nato ally Turkey.
Officials wrongly claimed on Tuesday the three French nationals – who include the brother-in-law of a gunman who killed seven people in France in 2012 – had already been arrested, before admitting they were still at large.
The lawyer for Gael Maurize, one of the men, said they had handed themselves in at a village police station after driving some 170km (105 miles) northwest of Marseille airport, where they had landed. Authorities had been waiting for them in Paris.
“The three men handed themselves in because they want to be listened to by the authorities,” said lawyer Apollinaire Legros-Gimbert, adding the men had been in touch with French authorities for several months before their return. “They were stunned not to have been questioned yesterday.”
French defence minister Jean-Yves Le Drian tried to push some of the blame for the confusion over the men’s fate on to Turkey. “There was obviously a lot of confusion, but it’s largely down to difficulties and lack of very good collaboration with the Turkish services,” he told France Info radio. “This confusion shows we have to strengthen our relations, the methods and the actions with the Turkish authorities.”
Turkish response
Asked about the case, a Turkish foreign ministry official said: “Turkey has done what needed to be done on this matter.”
Thousands of volunteers from France and other western countries have travelled to Syria and Iraq, often via Turkey, to join Islamist fighters, including Islamic State, which controls large swathes of Syrian and Iraqi territory.
Turkish authorities put the three men on a flight bound for Marseille on Tuesday after the pilot of an earlier flight to Paris had refused to let them board because they lacked necessary documents.
Compounding the confusion, the French interior ministry said they had been arrested on arrival in Paris and had been charged with being linked to a terrorist organisation. It later admitted this was not the case and said the French intelligence services had only been informed of their arrival after they had entered France at Marseille without checks.
“The Turkish initiative to change the plane was unfortunate,” Mr Le Drian said, adding that the passport control system in Marseille had not been working. – (Reuters)