A woman has sentenced a woman to 12 years in prison for taking part in the enslavement of children and women in Syria when she was a member of the Islamic State terrorist group. Lina Ishaq, 52, was found guilty of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes by a Stockholm court and was sentenced on Tuesday, February 11.
Ishaq was a member of the Islamic State terrorist group and lived in Raqqa, Syria, in 2015, when the group controlled that area of the country. During that time, she enslaved at least three women and six children belonging to the Yazidi minority.
The victims, who all appeared as plaintiffs in the case, stated they were all held for at least five months by the terrorist group after Islamic State fighters had initially captured them during a series of attacks on their villages in Iraq in August of 2014.
Ishaq is said to have forcibly converted the victims to Islam and made them recite the Quran and pray five times a day. The victims were also forced to do household chores, and some were held for years by human traffickers.
While the Islamic State no longer holds vast swathes of territory in Syria and Iraq, and several of its leaders have been killed, the group remains a threat. Several recent terror attacks have seen perpetrators pledge allegiance to the group, including the New Orleans New Year’s Day terrorist.
