Swedish Woman Sentenced To 12 Years In Prison For Genocide Against Minority Yazidi

Defendant's Desk/UNSPLASH ILLUSTRATION/Wesley Tingey

JAKARTA The court in Stockholm sentenced a Swedish woman to charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and serious war crimes committed in Syria in 2015 against women and children of Yazidi's minority religion. The defendant was sentenced to 12 years in prison

The woman identified as Lina Ishaq, a 52-year-old Swedish national, returned to Sweden in 2020. Currently Lina Ishaq is serving a sentence for another offense committed in Syria.

"The crime is a very serious offense, not only against the lives and integrity of certain individuals but also against fundamental values of humanity and humanity," the Stockholm district court said in a ruling.

ISIS controlled large parts of Iraq and Syria from 2014-2017, before being defeated in its last stronghold in Syria in 2019.

They judged Yazidi, an ancient minority religion, as a cultivator and killed more than 3,000 of them, as well as killed 7,000 women and daughters Yazidi and evicted most of the 550,000 communities from their ancestral homes in northern Iraq.

"Through her actions, the woman upholds imprisonment and slavery of the aggrieved parties initiated by ISIS (Islamic State)," the court said of Ishaq.

The United Nations said the ISIS attack on Yazidi was the same as a genocide campaign against them.

His lawyer, Mikael Westerlund, told Reuters Ishaq denied the allegations and would consider filing an appeal.