Dutch to prosecute first ISIS female suspect for enslaving Yezidis

It is the first time that someone in the Netherlands has been tried for a crime committed against Yezidis.

Wladimir van Wilgenburg 2023/02/11 19:36

Members of the media take photos of a Dutch woman with alleged links to ISIS and her children as they arrive arrive at an office of the local Kurdish-led administration in Qamishlo, Syria, June 5, 2021. (Photo: Kurdistan 24/Hisham Arafat)

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The Dutch Public Prosecution Service on Friday announced that they will prosecute a woman suspected of using a Yezidi woman as a slave in Syria in 2015.

It is the first time that someone in the Netherlands has been tried for a crime committed against Yezidis.

The Dutch prosecution said that ISIS not only committed terrorist crimes, but is also held responsible for the genocide committed against the Yezidi population, from 2014 in Syria and Iraq.

The Dutch parliament in July 2021 approved a motion to formally recognize ISIS crimes against the Yezidi (Ezidi) community in 2014 as genocide.

This case will take place on February 14 and will be heard in Rotterdam by the District Court of The Hague, the court that deals with international crimes.

Moreover, another 11 women will also face pro forma hearings in Rotterdam that the Dutch government brought back from a prison camp in Syria in November 2022.

The women were arrested after arrival on suspicion of terrorist crimes, as suspected members of the terrorist organization ISIS.

The repatriation of ISIS women has led to worries among Yezidis living in the Netherlands who suspect those women could have been involved in crimes against the Yezidi minority.

The Dutch parliament last year accepted a resolution calling on the government to include crimes against the Yezidi community in the collection of evidence against ISIS fighters

Moreover, the Dutch Minister of Justice and Security Dilan Yesilgöz-Zegerius told Kurdistan 24 last year during a visit to Erbil that the Netherlands seeks to ensure that “criminals and especially terrorists do not get away with their crimes,” she added.

“It is essential that survivors feel comfortable enough to come forward and share evidence with prosecution authorities, and that prosecutors work hard to collect enough evidence to successfully bring forth cases,” the Free Yezidi Foundation (FYF) said in a statement, welcoming the new step by the Dutch prosecution.

However, the FYF said while applauding this step forward, added that “much more remains to be done.”