Germany arrests ISIS woman who abused Yezidi woman in Syria

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – German police arrested a German women who is accused of ISIS membership and was involved in abusing a Yezidi woman, the German Federal Prosecution announced on Monday.

She was arrested in Frankfurt airport upon her return to Germany, after being deported from Turkey.

In a statement, the Attorney General at the Federal Court of Justice (GBA) said that the suspect, Nurten J., travelled to Syria in the spring of 2015 with her four year-old daughter to join the ‘foreign terrorist organization, the Islamic State (IS)’ and to live in their territory.

In Syria, she married and raised children with a German ISIS fighter who had also left Germany. They were living together and raising her children, according to directions to serve ISIS.

The suspect received monthly payments from ISIS and lived in apartments whose owners were killed or evicted by ISIS.

Between 2016 and 2017, Nurten J. had frequent visits from a friend to her apartment. At the request of Nurten J., her friend brought along an enslaved Yezidi women, who was used by Nurten J. to clean her living quarters without pay.

“Nurten J. thus followed the ideology of ISIS, from whose perspective the enslavement of Yezidis was religiously justified,” the Federal Prosecution affirmed.

When ISIS lost its territories in Syria, Nurten J. was captured by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF.) Later she was held in Turkey and deported to Germany.

The German prosecution did not make clear how the suspect was able to reach Turkey from Syria.

Most likely, the suspect escaped the infamous al-Hol camp. It was built to house 40,000 individuals, but currently holds around 65,000 people, mostly women and children. This includes nearly 11,000 foreign women with alleged ties to ISIS and their children.

According to a recent UN report released on Thursday “a steady stream of ISIL (ISIS) affiliated women are reported to have escaped the (al-Hol) camp into Turkey with the aid of corrupt guards and smugglers.”

On Friday, Nurten J. was brought in front of the investigative judge of the Federal Court of Justice who ordered her pre-trial detention.

German Yezidi journalist, Düzen Tekkal, told Kurdistan 24 that this case highlights how ISIS women “are perpetrators, not victims or innocent ‘brides.’”

Often the ISIS women are portrayed in the media as simple housewives who were not involved in any crimes.

“They committed terrible crimes also - and especially against other women - for which they are responsible and therefore have to be held accountable. As a woman’s rights activist, I believe in full equality between men and women,” Tekkal said. “That means: the same law applies to men and women. In court, it has to be about the deeds - not the chromosome set.”

This is not the first case against a German ISIS female suspect.
 
In March, Omaima Abdi, the former wife of two German ISIS fighters, was charged with crimes against humanity; membership in a terrorist group; and the enslavement of a 13-year-old Yezidi girl.

The charges were the result of the work of two investigative reporters, Harald Doornbos, a Dutch journalist based in the Middle East, and Jenan Moussa, a reporter for Dubai’s Al Aan TV. The two exposed Abdi’s return to Germany from Syria.

German Minister of State, Niels Annen, during a meeting of the UN Security Council on Thursday, said that Germany is putting members of the Syrian regime; ISIS; and Jabhat al-Nusra, a Salafist group which has fought against the Syrian regime, on trial for war crimes committed in Syria.

“Our message is clear: Whoever commits crimes against humanity or war crimes cannot feel safe anywhere and will eventually be held accountable,” he concluded.

Editing by Laurie Mylroie