VIENNA: An Austrian court on Wednesday convicted a woman who was repatriated from a Syrian detention camp for having been part of the Daesh group, handing her a two-year suspended jail sentence.
Since Daesh was ousted from its self-declared “caliphate” in 2019, the repatriation of family members of fighters who were either captured or killed has been a thorny issue for European countries.
Maria G., now 28, was brought back from Syria with her two sons in March and has remained free since her return, but was facing charges of being part of a terrorist group and a criminal organization.
At her trial on Wednesday in a court in the city of Salzburg, Maria G. pleaded guilty to both charges and “fully confessed,” court spokeswoman Christina Bayrhammer told AFP.
Prosecutors said they found no evidence of other crimes committed by Maria G. beyond her joining Daesh.
The court handed her a “suspended jail sentence of 24 months,” which she accepted, describing it as “another chance in life,” Bayrhammer said.
The court ruled that she will have to continue undergoing psychological counselling and a de-radicalization program.
The verdict is final, as both the prosecution and the defense waived their right to appeal.
Maria G. had left Austria as a teenager in 2014 to join Daesh in Syria, where she married a now-deceased Daesh fighter and gave birth to two children.
From 2020, she and her sons had been held in the Kurdish-run Roj detention camp for suspected militants.
They were brought back to Austria in March alongside another woman, Evelyn T., who was given a two-year suspended jail sentence in April.
In 2024, a Vienna court had ordered that Maria G. and her sons be repatriated, stressing that it was “in the children’s greater interest.”
Austria’s foreign ministry had previously rejected her request to be repatriated.
The EU member previously repatriated several children.
Belgium, France, Germany and the Netherlands are among other countries that have repatriated relatives of militant fighters.
Many of the women returned have been charged with terrorism crimes and imprisoned.
Austria sentences woman for Daesh membership after repatriation from Syria
https://arab.news/meh35
Austria sentences woman for Daesh membership after repatriation from Syria
- Maria G., now 28, was brought back from Syria with her two sons in March and has remained free since her return
- The court ruled that she will have to continue undergoing psychological counselling and a de-radicalization program
Trump tells Britain he does not need its help to win Iran war
- Rejects deployment of UK aircraft carriers to help the US and Israel in their war with Iran
- Trump was reacting to reports that the UK was preparing the Prince of Wales aircraft carrier for possible deployment
Trump was reacting to reports that the UK was preparing the Prince of Wales aircraft carrier for possible deployment
DOVER, US: President Donald Trump said on Saturday that Britain is giving “serious thought” to sending two aircraft carriers to the Middle East, but added that the US does not need them to win the war with Iran, in the latest clash between the military allies.
“The United Kingdom, our once Great Ally, maybe the Greatest of them all, is finally giving serious thought to sending two aircraft carriers to the Middle East,”
Trump said. "That’s OK, Prime Minister Starmer, we don’t need them any longer,” Trump posted to his Truth Social account.
“But we will remember,” he said. “We don’t need people that join Wars after we’ve already won!“
Trump posted the message shortly after attending the return of the first six US service members killed in the Middle East war, at Dover Airforce Base in the northeastern state of Delaware.
British media reports say the Royal Navy is preparing the HMS Prince Wales, an aircraft carrier currently at Portsmouth in southern England, for possible deployment to the Middle East, but no final decision had been made.
Trump has said he is “not happy with the UK,” mocking Starmer by saying “this is not Winston Churchill that we’re dealing with.”
The social media post comes after the British Ministry of Defense said on Saturday it was preparing the Prince of Wales aircraft carrier for possible deployment.
But no final decision has been taken about whether to deploy the aircraft carrier to the Middle East, a British official said.
Starmer has defended his decision not to allow US forces to use British bases to support initial strikes on Iran, saying he needed to be satisfied that any military action was legal and well planned.
He later granted US forces permission to use British bases for what he called defensive strikes against Iranian missiles in storage depots or launchers.
Starmer earlier this year criticized Trump’s desire to buy Greenland and said his comments that European troops avoided frontline combat in the war in Afghanistan were “frankly appalling.”
