The IS had "lured and seduced" her. Instead of pure Islamic teachings, "there was a system of forced rule with torture and executions", the mother criticised. However, she did not want to comment on the accusations made by the prosecution.

According to the indictment, she had taken her then five-year-old son to Syria in 2015 against the will of his father. She also allegedly possessed two assault rifles and thus violated the War Weapons Control Act. The German had divorced before leaving for Syria.

At times, the accused is said to have lived in the Iraqi city of Mosul, which was controlled by the Islamists at the time, and later returned to Syria. There, she allegedly married an IS fighter according to Islamic rites.

In 2019, she had been captured in Syria. From a Kurdish camp, the mother of two had then been transferred to Germany in early October 2021 and been arrested while still at Frankfurt/Main airport. "She had told me she wanted to go on holiday with my son in Greece," the child's father testified as a witness on Monday.

The Kurdish internment camps were "inhumane", the accused had explained. Her lawyer requested that the Special Rapporteur of the UN Human Rights Council and German officials be heard as witnesses in the trial.

The defendant's son, who is now twelve years old, has survived his time with the IS well, has made friends in Germany again, plays football and enjoys going to school, his father said. Only now and then does he say, "six years lost." If convicted, the mother of two faces several years in prison. The trial is scheduled for 17 more days until 24 June.

(Original text: dpa, Translation: Mareike Graepel)