The trial of crimes against humanity, genocide, and serious war crimes that has been ongoing since the beginning of October was concluded on Wednesday.
The 52-year-old woman is accused of having held six children and three women as slaves in her home in the Syrian city of Raqqa, which was the capital of the IS caliphate, between 2014 and 2015.
Prosecutor Reena Devgun believes that the actions were part of the terrorist group's systematic attacks on the Yazidi minority, aimed at exterminating the ethnic group.
Seeking Life Imprisonment
In her final argument, she demanded that the woman be sentenced to life imprisonment.
I believe that she, together with others, was responsible for holding nine people captive and imprisoned in this house. Some of them were held for up to six-seven months.
During the time in captivity, the woman allegedly forced them to convert to Islam, threatened them, and abused several of them. The prosecutor particularly emphasized that the plaintiffs were held captive for such a long time and that several of them were children.
The 52-year-old admits to having been in the residence with the children and women but claims that it was not she but another person who enslaved them.
We are seeking a complete acquittal, and in any case, that her involvement should not be considered genocide, says her defense attorney Mikael Westerlund.
Credibility in Focus
The defense has focused on the credibility of two of the enslaved women who testified during the trial. An expert was called to testify about how memories can be contaminated over time and how one can mix up similar events.
We believe that our claims were confirmed in that hearing, says Westerlund.
The prosecutor believes that the women were very credible.
We have been able to verify several statements they made, and they have been found to be true. We also have information from a long time ago from them that matches what they have told today, says Reena Devgun.
The plaintiff's attorney, Ghita Hadding Wiberg, says that the victims who testified during the trial found it difficult but important to come to Sweden.
They are not doing well from telling about this, but they still want to do it for the Yazidi people and to explain to the world what they have actually been through and contribute to those who treated them this way being held accountable.
The Stockholm District Court will announce its verdict on February 11.
The woman, who comes from western Sweden, traveled to Syria in the spring of 2013 with her husband and children to join the terrorist group Islamic State. Her husband died shortly after they arrived, in combat for IS.
After returning to Sweden much later, the woman was suspected of crimes and in 2022 was sentenced to six years in prison for serious war crimes. According to that verdict, she had allowed her son to become a child soldier for IS in Syria, where he died at the age of 16.
In September, the woman was charged again, for crimes against humanity, genocide, and serious war crimes.
