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
Militants kill 6 officers and a civilian in ambushes on police vehicles in northwest Pakistan
- Assailants ambushed a police vehicle and killed one officer in Kohat — when police reinforcements arrived, they launched another attack and killed five more officers and a civilian
- No group claimed responsibility for this week’s attacks, but suspicion may fall on the Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or the TTP
PESHAWAR, Pakistan: A pair of attacks on police vehicles by suspected militants killed at least six police officers and a civilian in northwest Pakistan on Tuesday, authorities said.
The assailants ambushed a police vehicle and killed one officer in Kohat, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. When police reinforcements arrived minutes later, they launched another attack and killed five more officers and a civilian, police official Kamran Khan said.
Separately on Tuesday, a suicide bomber detonated explosives at a police post in Bukkur, a district in eastern Punjab province, killing two officers and wounding four others, police official Shahzad Rafiq said.
He provided no further details and only said officers were still investigating.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks, which have increased across the country in recent months.
President Asif Ali Zardari condemned the attacks in Kohat and Bukkur and offered condolences to the victims’ families.
The latest violence followed an attack on a paramilitary post in Karak on Monday, when a drone loaded with explosives wounded several officers. The attackers later ambushed two ambulances transporting the wounded, killing three officers and burning their bodies before fleeing. The driver of the second ambulance transported several wounded officers despite suffering burn injuries and authorities recovered the remains of the three officers.
No group claimed responsibility for this week’s attacks, but suspicion may fall on the Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or the TTP. The TTP is separate from, but closely allied with, Afghanistan’s Taliban. Islamabad has accused the group of operating from inside Afghanistan, a claim the TTP and Kabul deny.
Pakistan’s military said it killed at least 70 militants on Sunday in strikes along the Afghan border, targeting hideouts of Pakistani militants blamed for recent attacks inside the country.
