A Dutch woman who joined Islamic State in 2015 is on trial in Netherlands for crimes against humanity for allegedly enslaving two women Yazidi in Syria.
Hasna Aarab, 33, is accused of participating in the enslavement of women, whom she held captive as domestic slaves, between 2015 and 2016, when she lived in Raqqa with her young son and her husband, an IS fighter.
OR Netherlands and the second country to try an alleged member of the Islamic State for crimes against Yazidia minority whose religion includes Zoroastrian, Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Manichaean elements.
The Islamic State controlled large swathes of Iraq and Syria between 2014-17. The “caliphate” he established collapsed in 2019. He considered the Yazidis “satanic” and killed more than 3,000 people. Nearly 7,000 women and girls were enslaved, while 550,000 people were displaced from their homes in northern Iraq.
Germany sentenced two IS members to crimes that they have committed at the expense of the Yazidis.
Aarab is also accused of being a member of a terrorist organization between 2015-22 and putting her 4-year-old son in danger by taking him to a war zone. She told the court today that she felt alienated and disillusioned in the Netherlands and left for Syria to start a new life, not to join IS. “I heard some things (but) I didn’t think I would be involved in ISIS atrocities,” he told the judges.
THE Arab lawyers They allege that their client was young and naive and that her then-husband left her at home with the two Yazidis, to whom she did not give orders. The defense will present its arguments later this week.
Under Dutch jurisdiction law, national courts can try suspects of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide committed on foreign soil, as long as the defendant is linked to the Netherlands.
Source: AMPE