Sweden Sentences Woman To 12 Years in Prison for Genocide, War Crimes in Syria

11/02/2025

A court in Stockholm convicted a Swedish woman of genocide, crimes against humanity, and gross war crimes committed in Syria in 2015 against women and children of the Yazidi religious minority, sentencing her to 12 years in prison. 

The woman, identified as 52-year-old Swedish citizen Lina Ishaq, returned to Sweden in 2020 and is currently serving time for other offences committed in Syria. 

"The crimes constitute an exceptionally serious violation, not only of the life and integrity of specific individuals but also of fundamental human values and humanity," Stockholm's district court said in its verdict on Tuesday. 

Islamic State controlled swathes of Iraq and Syria from 2014-2017, before being defeated in its last bastions in Syria in 2019. 

It viewed the Yazidis, an ancient religious minority, as devil worshippers and killed more than 3,000 of them, as well as enslaving 7,000 Yazidi women and girls and displacing most of the 550,000-strong community from its ancestral home in northern Iraq. 

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