France worries about how to handle released terrorists

“BEING LOCKED up is a piece of piss if the guy was ready to die,” said Youssef, who had been jailed for jihadism. “Ten years in prison? It’s (in the cause of Allah). I’m going to learn the Koran, and leave even stronger.” Youssef (not his real name) was speaking to Hugo Micheron, a researcher conducting a study on jihadism in France. By the time the book was published last year, Youssef had served his term and been set free.France is grappling with an unfamiliar challenge: how to handle those let out after serving time for terrorist-related offences. Of the 500 or so such detainees now behind bars, 58 are due for release this year, and a total of some 100 by 2023. Most were convicted for joining jihadist groups in Syria or Iraq, or helping others to do so. They were often sentenced to terms of only five to six years. Far stiffer sentences, including life, were handed down last December to accomplices in the terrorist attacks in Paris in 2015.