A female Islamic State member on trial in Germany is accused of keeping two women and a young girl as slaves while living with her jihadi husband in Syria.
Sarah O., who travelled to Syria to join the radical Islamist movement when she was 15, is now on trial at the Higher Regional Court in Dusseldorf, charged with being a member of a terrorist group, German tabloid Bild reports.
Now 21 years old, the Islamic State member faces up to 15 years in prison if found guilty. She is said to have lived in a house with her husband and three children which they had obtained after Islamic State fighters had killed its former occupants.
The young girl kept as a slave was a member of the Yazidi minority, who are often kept as sex slaves to be raped and tortured by Islamic State fighters.
While the trial was closed to the media due to the charges having occurred when Sarah O. was a minor,
Speaking about the Yazidis, Aldonani said: “They have been tormented, tortured, humiliated, raped. ISIS women were often crueller than men. Jealousy plays a role here.”
Ahmet S., 51, and 48-year-old Perihan S., the inlaws of Sarah O., have also been brought up on charges. A total of 33 witnesses have been called in the case which is expected to last until December.
Sarah O. is also said to have divorced her jihadist husband.
The start of the trial comes just days after three female Islamic State sympathisers in France were convicted of plotting to blow up the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris in 2016. The two main suspects were sentenced to 25 and 30 years in prison.
Returning female Islamic State members like Sarah O., have been a contentious subject in various European countries.
Some, like Denmark, have stripped the citizenship of Islamic States fighters. Others, like Sweden, have refused to take such measures despite calls from experts not to allow jihadist women back into the country.
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