BERLIN: A German woman was convicted Tuesday of membership in the Daesh group and other offenses for traveling to Syria to join the organization with her young son. She was sentenced to 3 1/2 years in prison.
The Duesseldorf state court said Verena M., whose full name wasn’t released in line with German privacy rules, was convicted of membership in a foreign terrorist organization and abduction of a minor, among other charges.
The court found that the defendant traveled to Syria in 2015 with her son, then aged 5, without the knowledge of the child’s father. It found that she ran the household and brought up her son in line with Daesh ideology while her new husband fought for the group, and that the couple had two Kalashnikov rifles.
The child was lucky to emerge unscathed from two bombing attacks during their time with Daesh, judges found. The defendant surrendered to Kurdish forces in 2019. She and her three children — two more were born in Syria — were repatriated to Germany in October last year.
The case is one of several in Germany involving women who traveled to Daesh-held terroritory. Last month, a German who took her young daughter to Syria and allegedly took advantage of an enslaved Yazidi woman was given a sentence of three years and three months.
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German woman jailed for taking son to Syria to join Daesh
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German woman jailed for taking son to Syria to join Daesh
- The case is one of several in Germany involving women who traveled to Daesh-held terroritory
A thousand Kyiv apartment blocks still without heating after Russian strike
KYIV: More than 1,000 apartment buildings in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv are still without heating following a devastating Russian attack earlier this week, local authorities said on Sunday.
Russia has intensified bombardments of Ukraine’s energy system since it invaded its neighbor in 2022.
On Friday, a missile strike on Kyiv left virtually the entire city without power and heating amid a sharp cold snap, and it was not until Sunday that authorities restored water supplies and partially restored electricity and heating.
The war’s fourth winter could be the coldest and darkest yet, with the accumulated damage to the grid bringing utilities to the brink and temperatures, already below minus 12 degrees Celsius (10.4 F), set to plunge to minus 20 degrees (-4 F) later this week.
“Restoration work is ongoing. However, the energy supply situation in the capital remains very difficult,” Kyiv Mayor Vitalii Klitschko said on Telegram.
“According to forecasts, the severe frosts are not expected to subside in the coming days. Therefore, the difficult situation in the capital will continue,” he added.
Ukraine’s energy ministry said Russian forces had attacked the country’s power system again during the night, briefly cutting off electricity to the south-eastern Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhia regions.
“Not a single day passed this week without attacks on energy facilities and critical infrastructure. A total of 44 attacks were recorded,” Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said on Telegram.
Russia has intensified bombardments of Ukraine’s energy system since it invaded its neighbor in 2022.
On Friday, a missile strike on Kyiv left virtually the entire city without power and heating amid a sharp cold snap, and it was not until Sunday that authorities restored water supplies and partially restored electricity and heating.
The war’s fourth winter could be the coldest and darkest yet, with the accumulated damage to the grid bringing utilities to the brink and temperatures, already below minus 12 degrees Celsius (10.4 F), set to plunge to minus 20 degrees (-4 F) later this week.
“Restoration work is ongoing. However, the energy supply situation in the capital remains very difficult,” Kyiv Mayor Vitalii Klitschko said on Telegram.
“According to forecasts, the severe frosts are not expected to subside in the coming days. Therefore, the difficult situation in the capital will continue,” he added.
Ukraine’s energy ministry said Russian forces had attacked the country’s power system again during the night, briefly cutting off electricity to the south-eastern Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhia regions.
“Not a single day passed this week without attacks on energy facilities and critical infrastructure. A total of 44 attacks were recorded,” Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said on Telegram.
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