A Dutch court sentenced this Wednesday (11) a woman to 10 years in prison for being part of the Islamic State in Syria and keeping a Yazidi woman as a slave.
The prosecution requested an eight-year sentence for Dutch woman Hasna Aarab, aged 33, but the Hague District Court stated that due to the seriousness of the slavery case, considered a crime against humanity, it required a stronger punishment.
The judges ruled that it was clear that Aarab had actively participated in the enslavement of a Yazidi woman between 2015 and 2016, while she lived in Raqqa with her young son and Islamic State fighter husband.
The Yazidi woman, identified only as Z, was forced to work in Aarab’s house, where she was also sexually assaulted. According to the judges, the Dutch woman “knew about Z’s terrible situation which worsened when the Dutch woman ordered her to do the housework and look after her son”.
“She acted knowing that what happened in her home was part of a widespread and systemic attack on the Yazidi community,” the court alleged.
The court claimed that “this type of crime against humanity is among the worst possible international violations.”
ethnic minority
The Yazidis are an ancient religious minority that the Islamic State considers to be devil worshipers. The group has killed more than 3,000 people, as well as enslaving 7,000 minority women and girls, displacing most of the community of 550,000 from their ancestral home in northern Iraq.
Between 2014 and 2017, IS controlled areas of Iraq and Syria, before being defeated in 2019.
Convicted was part of the Islamic State
Aarab was also convicted of participating in a terrorist organization, enabling extremist acts and putting her young son’s life at risk.
Previously, she had been accused of slavery by two other women, but the court ruled that there was insufficient evidence of the accusations of one of the women, identified only as S.
At the start of the trial, Aarab had told the court that he moved from the Netherlands to Islamic State-controlled territory in Syria in 2015 with his son to try to change his life for the better.
The Dutch woman denied having actively participated in the enslavement of women and told the judges that the Yazidi victims were lying when they said they were forced to pray.
After the fall of the Islamic State, the Dutch woman was held in Kurdish detention camps and was repatriated by the Dutch government in 2022.
This content was originally published in Dutch woman is convicted of enslaving a woman from the Yazidi minority in Syria on the CNN Brasil website.
Source: CNN Brasil
Bruce Belcher is a seasoned author with over 5 years of experience in world news. He writes for online news websites and provides in-depth analysis on the world stock market. Bruce is known for his insightful perspectives and commitment to keeping the public informed.
