ISIS-linked woman repatriated from NE Syria on trial in Germany
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – A German woman is on trial in Germany, accused of having joined the Islamic State (ISIS) and enslaving a Yazidi woman. The 37-year-old Nadine K allegedly travelled to Syria in December 2014 and was arrested by Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in 2019.
The German prosecution has charged the mother of two with accessory to genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. They allege that she and her husband stored and moved weapons for ISIS and that they enslaved a Yazidi woman in 2016, who was repeatedly raped by Nadine K’s partner.
The Yazidi woman, who hails from Iraq’s Sinjar (Shengal) region, was also forced to practice Islamic rites and prevented from going outside by Nadine K. She will appear at the trial in the German city of Koblenz, together with 20 other witnesses.
During ISIS’ assault on the Yazidi-majority Sinjar region of Iraq in 2014, the group murdered thousands of men, while women and children were kidnapped and enslaved in an effort to wipe out the ancient religious group. Several German courts have deemed it a genocide.
After travelling to Syria in December 2014, Nadine K and her husband, who worked as a doctor for ISIS militants, moved to the Iraqi city of Mosul in 2015, the prosecution alleges. From late 2016 to March 2019 the family is said to have resided in Syria.
Only as the SDF surrounded ISIS in its last stronghold of Baghouz, in the Deir ez-Zor Governorate, did the pair free the Yazidi woman they had been holding captive.
Nadine K was held by the SDF until her repatriation in March 2022, when her government returned her together with nine other women and 27 children. She and three women from that group were arrested upon landing in Frankfurt Airport.
In late 2022, the Department of Foreign Relations of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) announced handing over 515 children and women of ISIS member families to 13 different countries, including about 50 German nationals.
Thousands of ISIS militants’ wives and children are held in both Hawl and Roj camps in NE Syria.
Hawl Camp, 45 km east of the city of Hasakah, houses 55.829 individuals, including 28.725 Iraqis, 18.850 Syrians, and 8.254 of foreign nationalities, according to the latest statistics obtained by North Press.
Roj camp, west of the city of Derik (al-Malikiyah), houses 806 families, including 2.800 individuals of Arabs and foreigners, mostly women and children of ISIS members who hail from 62 countries, according to a previous report published by North Press.