IS woman charged in Sweden for enslaving Yazidis in Syria

STOCKHOLM,— Swedish prosecutors have announced genocide charges against a woman in the country’s first case concerning crimes committed by the Islamic State (IS) against the Yazidi minority.

The 52-year-old Swedish citizen is accused of keeping Yazidi women and children as slaves while living in Syria between 2014 and 2016, marking a significant legal development in Sweden’s efforts to address IS-linked crimes, AFP reported on Thursday.

The charges, which include genocide, crimes against humanity, and serious war crimes, reflect the Swedish government’s increasing commitment to prosecuting individuals involved in atrocities committed by IS.

Prosecutor Reena Devgun explained that the woman’s actions were part of the broader campaign by IS to annihilate the Yazidi community, a Kurdish-speaking religious minority.

The accused woman is already serving a six-year prison sentence following a 2022 conviction for allowing her 12-year-old son to be recruited as a child soldier by IS.

This latest investigation began when authorities received testimonies indicating she had held slaves in Raqqa, a former IS stronghold in northern Syria. These witness accounts led to further probing, which revealed the woman’s involvement in holding nine Yazidi individuals—three women and six children—captive at her home.

The captives, forced into slavery for periods ranging from 20 days to seven months, were made to perform domestic tasks and were photographed with the apparent intention of being sold.

Devgun emphasized that the woman’s actions, as the spouse of an IS member, aligned her with the extremist group’s wider genocidal campaign against the Yazidis. She argued that by bringing Yazidis into her home and treating them inhumanely, the accused played an active role in IS’s systematic persecution.

The trial, set to begin on October 7 in Stockholm, is expected to last two months. The charges the woman faces could lead to a life sentence if she is convicted, though she continues to deny all allegations.

Sweden, like several other European countries, has been grappling with how to handle citizens who joined IS in Iraq and Syria. According to Sweden’s intelligence service, approximately 300 Swedes or Swedish residents, a quarter of them women, joined IS during its peak in 2013 and 2014.

The country has faced ongoing pressure to hold these individuals accountable for their involvement in IS’s atrocities, particularly as many have returned home after the group’s collapse.

The genocide committed against the Yazidi people is one of the most widely recognized crimes of IS. In August 2014, IS forces launched a brutal assault on the Sinjar district in northwestern Iraq, home to a large Yazidi population. As Kurdish Peshmerga forces withdrew, Yazidi civilians were left unprotected, leading to widespread killing, abduction, and enslavement.

Thousands of Yazidis fled to Mount Sinjar, where they were trapped without food or water. IS militants killed or abducted thousands, systematically targeting Yazidi women for rape and sexual slavery. Men and boys were often murdered or forced to work for the group, with some boys coerced into becoming child soldiers.

An estimated 3,000 Yazidis were killed during the initial days of the attack, and 6,800 were abducted. Though thousands have since been rescued, another 3,000 remain missing, according to official statistics.

The United Nations and several international organizations have since recognized these events as genocide, with the EU, U.S., and other nations formally acknowledging the Islamic State’s actions as an attempt to exterminate the Yazidi people.

The failure of Kurdish Peshmerga forces, under the leadership of then-Kurdistan President Massoud Barzani, to protect the Yazidi population has been a source of significant criticism.

Many Yazidis and political observers hold Barzani responsible for the massacre, accusing his forces of abandoning the Yazidis at a critical moment. The events of August 2014 have deeply scarred the Yazidi community, which continues to struggle with the aftermath of the genocide.

The Yazidis, whose faith blends elements of Zoroastrianism and Sufism, have long been marginalized and persecuted, particularly by extremist groups such as IS, which views them as heretics.

Before the 2014 assault, there were approximately 600,000 Yazidis living in northern Iraq, mainly in and around Sinjar. While many Yazidis have since found refuge, either within Iraq or abroad, their community remains fractured and deeply traumatized.

The plight of the Yazidi people has garnered international attention, leading to a growing recognition of IS’s crimes. In 2015, the United Nations labeled the assault a potential genocide, and subsequent years have seen multiple countries—including Germany, Armenia, and the Netherlands—officially recognize the genocide. In 2023, the British government followed suit, formally acknowledging that IS committed genocidal acts against the Yazidi population in 2014.

Today, there are roughly 1.5 million Yazidis worldwide, with sizable communities in Iraq, Transcaucasia, Turkey, and Syria. Many have emigrated to Europe, particularly to Germany, in the decades following the rise of IS. Despite the growing international recognition of the genocide, the Yazidi community continues to face challenges in rebuilding and seeking justice for the atrocities they endured.

(With files from AFP, Agencies)