‘De-radicalisation’ pioneer convicted of embezzling public funds

The former head of a de-radicalization cell, Sonia Imloul, was sentenced on Monday by the Paris Criminal Court to four months in prison and 25,000 euros in damages for embezzlement of public funds. The prison time has been suspended.

Imloul was convicted of embezzlement of public funds. She was also ordered to pay close to 25,000 euros in damages. The prosecution had requested a fine of 20,000 euros.

She was found guilty of diverting the funds using forged bank identities between 2014 and 2015.

The authorities accuse her of having taken about 60,000 and having employed three people without paying them a salary, nor providing them with a contract of employment.

Imloul organization was one of the first to open in France in the summer of 2014, following the launch of a governmental toll-free number that collected reports of radicalized people and then directed them to organizations like this one.

Baptized "House of Prevention and the Family", it was based in an apartment in Aulnay-sous-Bois (Seine-Saint-Denis) where young people or families were sent by the prefecture of police of Paris.

He defense team argued that while the management of the project was deplorable, there was no embezzlement involved.

It argued that the funds had been allocated to the mission, and the mission has been carried out. Her defense also claimed that she could justify "almost to the euro" where the money had gone.