What makes a young woman from Germany join Islamist fighters and travel to Syria? A trial in Celle could shed light on the motives of a mother of three.
Celle – Because she is said to have joined the terrorist militia Islamic State (IS) in Syria, a mother of three is before the Higher Regional Court (OLG) in Celle.
The 33-year-old is one of the alleged IS supporters who were brought back to Germany with their children in a plane chartered by the federal government at the beginning of October. She has been in custody ever since.
The German is accused of a number of crimes, including membership in a foreign terrorist organization and a crime against humanity. At the end of 2021, the federal prosecutor brought charges against the 33-year-old before the state security senate of the Celle Higher Regional Court.
Woman married several IS fighters
The Osnabrück native is said to have left for Syria with her then four-year-old daughter against the will of the child’s father at the end of 2014. In Syria, the woman successively married several IS members according to Islamic rites and enabled them to fight by running the household, according to the indictment.
Among other things, she is said to have taken her daughter to the stoning of a woman at the age of six and shown the child execution videos. She is also said to have brought up her two sons, who were born in Syria, in the spirit of the radical Islamist teachings of the IS.
In addition, the 33-year-old is accused of having recruited a 16-year-old youth in Germany for the terrorist organization. The young woman traveled together with the woman from Osnabrück and her little daughter via Turkey to the combat zone. According to the court, the accused lived with her children in two Kurdish camps after her capture in Syria in early 2019.
A total of eight women with a total of 23 children landed in Frankfurt am Main on the night of October 7, 2021 as part of the federal government’s return campaign. The majority of the returnees were arrested after landing, as the Foreign Ministry announced at the time. dpa
