A member of ISIS was found guilty of crimes against humanity in a landmark decision. This is a key moment in the pursuit of international human rights crimes.
- The first case in the Netherlands to deal with crimes against the Yazidi people
- The 10-year term shows that radical ideas are still a threat.
A Dutch court made a big choice when it found Hasna A. guilty of crimes against humanity and gave her a 10-year jail term for what she did in Syria with the Islamic State (IS) group.
The Yazidi community, a religious minority from northwest Iraq that experienced severe attacks from IS fighters in August 2014, is the subject of this sentence for the first time in the Netherlands.
During this brutal campaign, IS killed men and boys, forced women to become slaves, and forced them to convert to Islam or get married. As a result, about 300,000 Yazidis had to leave their home country.
Hasna A., a 33-year-old woman, took her 4-year-old son to Syria in 2015 and joined IS. There, she married a fighter. After that, she was given a Yazidi woman to work as her housekeeper, which unfortunately led to her being abused and mistreated regularly.
The Yazidi victim, who was only named Z., testified in court from a protected witness booth. She talked about how heartbreaking it was to be split from her son, who was taken to an IS battle camp. Hasna A. denied being responsible and said she lived a quiet life, but the court still found her guilty.
The judges gave her a 10-year sentence, which was longer than the eight years the prosecutors had originally suggested because she continued to express radical ideas.
Twelve women were sent back to the Netherlands from a Syrian refugee camp in 2022. Hasna A. has been in jail since she got back, and child protection services are now taking care of her children.
This finding is a big step forward in holding those responsible for the systematic mistreatment of the Yazidi people accountable. Additionally, it demonstrates how seriously the international community takes the issue of obtaining justice for those who have suffered due to extreme ideology and violence.