Court case IS returnee from Sankt Augustin sentenced to prison term
Düsseldorf · The Higher Regional Court of Düsseldorf has sentenced an IS returnee from Sankt Augustin near Bonn to three and a half years in prison for membership in the foreign terrorist militia Islamic State (IS) and severe child abduction.
Lawyer Basay Yildiz, pictured left, chats with her client in the courtroom. The 32-year-old mother from Sankt Augustin is accused of having supported IS as a member since July 2015 and of having taken her son, who was five years old at the time, to Syria against his father's will.
Foto: dpa/David YoungThe sentence handed down on Tuesday was in line with the demand of representatives of the federal prosecution. The defense had requested a two-year suspended sentence. The verdict is not yet final.
The 33-year-old convert had joined IS in July 2015 and taken her then five-year-old son to Syria against the will of his father. In addition, the Düsseldorf State Protection Senate was convinced that she had two assault rifles with the IS and had thus violated the War Weapons Control Act. At the start of the trial at the end of March, the defendant distanced herself from the terrorist militia. The IS had "lured and seduced" her.
The defendant had been captured by Kurdish militias in Syria in early 2019 and held there in detention camps until her extradition in October 2021. According to the court, this time cannot be counted towards the prison sentence, as it was not a state-ordered deprivation of liberty.
Original text: dpa
Translation: Mareike Graepel
