Swedish Woman Charged with Genocide Against Yazidis in Landmark IS Trial

Swedish authorities have charged Swedish citizen Lina Laina Ishaq, associated with the Islamic State, with genocide and war crimes against Yazidi women and children in Syria. The alleged crimes occurred from 2014 to 2016 in Raqqa, the IS caliphate's former de facto capital. The trial begins on October 7.

Swedish authorities have charged a 52-year-old woman, Lina Laina Ishaq, with genocide, crimes against humanity, and severe war crimes related to her alleged actions against Yazidi women and children in Syria. This is the first time such a case involving the Islamic State has been tried in Sweden.

According to the prosecutor, Ishaq's crimes took place between August 2014 and December 2016 in Raqqa, the former capital of the Islamic State's self-proclaimed caliphate. The senior prosecutor noted that IS attacks against the Yazidi minority are being tried in Sweden for the first time. Ishaq allegedly detained several Yazidi women and children at her residence in Raqqa, exposing them to severe suffering, torture, and inhumane treatment aimed at annihilating the Yazidi ethnic group.

In 2014, IS militants abducted Yazidi women and children in Iraq, forcing women into sexual slavery and indoctrinating boys in jihadi ideology. Ishaq previously served a three-year prison sentence in Sweden for taking her son to Syria in 2014. She was extradited from Turkey to Sweden in 2017. The trial is scheduled to start on October 7 and will span approximately two months, with some parts held behind closed doors.

(With inputs from agencies.)