STOCKHOLM: A Swedish court on Tuesday sentenced a 52-year-old woman to 12 years in prison on genocide charges, in the country’s first court case over crimes by Daesh against the Yazidi minority.
Accused of keeping Yazidi women and children as slaves at her home in Syria in 2015, Lina Ishaq was convicted of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, the Stockholm district court said in a statement.
The crimes warranted a sentence of 16 years, but taking a previous sentence into account it ordered her to spend 12 years behind bars, the court said. Prosecutors had demanded a life jail sentence.
The woman, a Swedish citizen, had already been sentenced to six years imprisonment in 2022 for allowing her 12-year-old son to be recruited as a Daesh child soldier.
Prosecutor Reena Devgun said she was happy with the convictions but she would likely appeal against the sentence.
“These are very, very severe crimes, and compared to other Swedish jurisprudence or Swedish sentencing traditions, I do think that there is room for a more severe sentence,” she told AFP.
The court said the case concerned nine Yazidi, six of whom were children at the time.
All the plaintiffs were captured by Daesh in attacks on Kurdish-speaking Yazidi villages that began in August 2014 in Sinjar, Iraq. Their male relatives were executed and thousands of women were taken.
After about five months of captivity, they arrived at Ishaq’s home in Raqqa.
“The woman kept them imprisoned and treated them as her property by holding them as slaves for a period of, in most cases, five months,” the court said.
Their movement was restricted, they were made to perform chores and some were photographed in preparation to be transferred to other people as slaves.
“Given the fact that she participated in the onward transfer of the injured parties, she is also responsible for enabling their continued imprisonment and enslavement,” the court said.
Ishaq also forced the Yazidis, who practice their own religion, to “become practicing Muslims” by making them recite Qur'an verses and pray four or five times a day.
She also called the injured parties “demeaning invectives such as ‘infidels’ or ‘slaves’,” the court said.
The court stressed “that the comprehensive system of enslavement” was one of “the crucial elements” implemented by Daesh in “the perpetration of the genocide, the crimes against humanity and gross war crimes that the Yazidi population was subjected to.”
As such, the court said “the woman shared the IS intent to destroy a religious group.”
Ishaq’s lawyer Mikael Westerlund said the woman had not decided whether to appeal, but said they were pleased the court had not handed down a life sentence as requested by the prosecution.
“It was important for the prosecution to sentence her for life,” he told AFP.
Around 300 Swedes or Swedish residents, a quarter of them women, joined Daesh in Syria and Iraq, mostly in 2013 and 2014, according to Sweden’s intelligence service Sapo.
Ishaq grew up in a Christian Iraqi family in Sweden but converted to Islam after meeting her late husband and extremist Jiro Mehho, with whom she had six children, in the 1990s.
She traveled to Syria with her children in 2013. Mehho died in August 2013, and Ishaq moved to Raqqa in 2014 and re-married.
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Swedish woman jailed for keeping Yazidi slaves in Syria
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Swedish woman jailed for keeping Yazidi slaves in Syria
- Accused of keeping Yazidi women and children as slaves at her home in Syria in 2015, Lina Ishaq was convicted of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes
China foreign minister blasts Middle East war, urges US to manage ties
- Wang Yi: ‘A strong fist does not mean strong reason. The world cannot return to the law of the jungle’
BEIJING: China’s top diplomat condemned on Sunday the war in the Middle East and urged the United States to iron out its differences with Beijing.
Foreign Minister Wang Yi told a press conference in the Chinese capital that the war, which was sparked by US and Israeli strikes on Iran, “should never have happened.”
“A strong fist does not mean strong reason. The world cannot return to the law of the jungle,” he told reporters.
He was speaking during China’s annual political gathering, which began this week, known as the “Two Sessions.”
The parallel meetings of China’s parliament and political consultative body are closely watched for clues as to the priorities of top leaders, in the face of a precarious geopolitical landscape
Wang addressed a range of issues, including a trade war with the United States, regional tensions in the South China Sea, as well as wars in the Middle East and Ukraine.
“This year is indeed a big year for Sino-US relations,” Wang said.
‘Manage differences’
Ties between China and the United States have been strained since US President Donald Trump returned to the White House last year, followed by a trade war that saw the two countries impose tit-for-tat tariffs on each other’s products.
“We observe certain country erecting tariff barriers and pursuing decoupling and supply chain disruption,” Wang said on Sunday.
“These actions are akin to trying to extinguish a fire with fuel. Ultimately, they will backfire and harm itself.”
While China and the United States “cannot change each other,” he said, “we can change the way we interact with each other.”
Wang urged both sides to “create a suitable environment, manage existing differences, and eliminate unnecessary interference.”
But a wide range of disagreements remain.
Beijing has blasted US and Israeli military strikes on Iran, with which it has diplomatic and trade ties.
It has in particular condemned the killing of the country’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Wang also maintained that China’s relations with Moscow, which have been criticized by Western countries for sustaining the war in Ukraine, remained “steadfast and unshakeable.”
China ‘gym’
China has sought to profit off Trump’s volatile foreign policies, positioning itself as a reliable alternative to once traditional US allies.
Leaders from France, Canada, Finland and the United Kingdom, among others, have flocked to Beijing, recoiling from Trump’s bid to seize Greenland and tariff threats against fellow NATO members.
Wang welcomed the visits on Sunday, saying “we have noticed that more and more insightful Europeans agree that China is not a competitor, but a global partner.”
“We welcome our European friends to step out of the ‘small attic’ of protectionism and come to the ‘gym’ of the Chinese market, where they can strengthen their muscles and enhance their competitiveness,” he said.
In the spirit of warming relations, China has doled out visa-free travel agreements to around 50 countries including France, Germany, and the United Kingdom.
Beijing has also agreed to reduced tariffs with Ottawa and London in their exports to China.
Wang also addressed relations between China and Japan, which have been locked in a spat after comments by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi in November that Tokyo could intervene militarily in any attack on self-ruled Taiwan.
Takaichi’s comments enraged Beijing, which views Taiwan as its territory and has not ruled out taking by force.
Wang emphasized on Sunday that Beijing “will never allow anyone or any force to separate Taiwan … from China once again.”
He warned Japan against “repeating the same disastrous mistakes,” adding that China “will never allow anyone to stand up for colonialism,” in an apparent reference to Tokyo’s actions during World War II.
The issue of Taiwan, he insisted, is “at the heart of China’s core interests” and “a red line that must not be crossed or trampled on.”
Foreign Minister Wang Yi told a press conference in the Chinese capital that the war, which was sparked by US and Israeli strikes on Iran, “should never have happened.”
“A strong fist does not mean strong reason. The world cannot return to the law of the jungle,” he told reporters.
He was speaking during China’s annual political gathering, which began this week, known as the “Two Sessions.”
The parallel meetings of China’s parliament and political consultative body are closely watched for clues as to the priorities of top leaders, in the face of a precarious geopolitical landscape
Wang addressed a range of issues, including a trade war with the United States, regional tensions in the South China Sea, as well as wars in the Middle East and Ukraine.
“This year is indeed a big year for Sino-US relations,” Wang said.
‘Manage differences’
Ties between China and the United States have been strained since US President Donald Trump returned to the White House last year, followed by a trade war that saw the two countries impose tit-for-tat tariffs on each other’s products.
“We observe certain country erecting tariff barriers and pursuing decoupling and supply chain disruption,” Wang said on Sunday.
“These actions are akin to trying to extinguish a fire with fuel. Ultimately, they will backfire and harm itself.”
While China and the United States “cannot change each other,” he said, “we can change the way we interact with each other.”
Wang urged both sides to “create a suitable environment, manage existing differences, and eliminate unnecessary interference.”
But a wide range of disagreements remain.
Beijing has blasted US and Israeli military strikes on Iran, with which it has diplomatic and trade ties.
It has in particular condemned the killing of the country’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Wang also maintained that China’s relations with Moscow, which have been criticized by Western countries for sustaining the war in Ukraine, remained “steadfast and unshakeable.”
China ‘gym’
China has sought to profit off Trump’s volatile foreign policies, positioning itself as a reliable alternative to once traditional US allies.
Leaders from France, Canada, Finland and the United Kingdom, among others, have flocked to Beijing, recoiling from Trump’s bid to seize Greenland and tariff threats against fellow NATO members.
Wang welcomed the visits on Sunday, saying “we have noticed that more and more insightful Europeans agree that China is not a competitor, but a global partner.”
“We welcome our European friends to step out of the ‘small attic’ of protectionism and come to the ‘gym’ of the Chinese market, where they can strengthen their muscles and enhance their competitiveness,” he said.
In the spirit of warming relations, China has doled out visa-free travel agreements to around 50 countries including France, Germany, and the United Kingdom.
Beijing has also agreed to reduced tariffs with Ottawa and London in their exports to China.
Wang also addressed relations between China and Japan, which have been locked in a spat after comments by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi in November that Tokyo could intervene militarily in any attack on self-ruled Taiwan.
Takaichi’s comments enraged Beijing, which views Taiwan as its territory and has not ruled out taking by force.
Wang emphasized on Sunday that Beijing “will never allow anyone or any force to separate Taiwan … from China once again.”
He warned Japan against “repeating the same disastrous mistakes,” adding that China “will never allow anyone to stand up for colonialism,” in an apparent reference to Tokyo’s actions during World War II.
The issue of Taiwan, he insisted, is “at the heart of China’s core interests” and “a red line that must not be crossed or trampled on.”
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