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Swedish Woman Sentenced for Genocide and War Crimes Against Yazidis

A Swedish national has received a prison sentence of 12 years for her participation in genocide and war crimes against the Yazidi community after joining the jihadist group Islamic State (IS) in Syria.

Lina Ishaq, 52, was convicted of enslaving three Yazidi women and six children in Raqqa between 2014 and 2016, with her sentence being handed down in a September trial last year. This case marks a significant moment, as it is the first instance of IS-related crimes against the Yazidi people being prosecuted in Sweden.

Ishaq moved to Syria with her family in 2013 to join IS. She is currently serving additional sentences for illegally taking her two-year-old son to a war zone and failing to prevent her 12-year-old son from being recruited as a child soldier, who tragically died in 2017 at the age of 16.

During her time with IS, Ishaq was reported to have forced her captives to adhere to strict Islamic practices and subjected them to physical violence. “The convicted woman was part of the large-scale enslavement system which IS introduced for Yazidi women and children,” noted Maria Ulfsdotter Klang, the presiding judge of the Stockholm District Court. Furthermore, she contributed to the ongoing deprivation of liberty and trafficking of these individuals.

The Yazidis are an ancient religious minority predominantly located in the Sinjar region of northern Iraq. In August 2014, IS launched a brutal offensive against Yazidi communities, resulting in acts of genocide.

In the ensuing violence over three years, approximately 5,000 Yazidis were killed, and around half a million individuals were forcibly displaced. Over 6,000 women and children were abducted, facing severe torture and sexual violence, with the intent to annihilate the Yazidi population, as reported by the UN.

Ishaq has roots in Iraq, where she was born into a Christian family that relocated to Sweden during her childhood. Reports indicate that she converted to Islam before marrying. She was among approximately 300 Swedish citizens, including many women, who joined IS in 2013.

As the self-proclaimed IS caliphate began to disintegrate in 2017, Ishaq fled Raqqa and eventually reached Turkey, where she was extradited back to Sweden in 2020.

Sweden has since become home to approximately 6,000 Yazidis. According to Dawood Khalaf, chairman of the Yazidi association in Skaraborg, the prosecution of Ishaq has played a crucial role in fostering trust between the Yazidi community and local authorities. He highlighted that fear previously kept many from coming forward to police. “After this indictment, the picture has changed,” he stated in an interview.

Despite her conviction, Ishaq’s attorney, Mikael Westerlund, has indicated that she maintains her innocence and is contemplating an appeal against the ruling.

Source
www.bbc.com