Swedish Woman Sentenced for Genocide Against Yazidis in Historic Case

A 52-year-old Swedish woman, Lina Ishaq, has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for committing genocide and war crimes against the Yazidi community after joining Islamic State. This marks the first trial of IS crimes against Yazidis in Sweden, highlighting the extensive impact of the militant group's actions.

A Swedish woman has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for committing genocide and war crimes against the Yazidi population during her time with the jihadist group Islamic State (IS) in Syria. Lina Ishaq, 52, was found guilty of enslaving three Yazidi women and six Yazidi children in Raqqa from 2014 to 2016, marking a significant legal precedent as this is the first instance of IS crimes against the Yazidis being prosecuted in Sweden.

Ishaq had moved her family to Syria in 2013 after joining IS. She is already serving sentences for bringing her young son to Syria and for failing to stop IS from using her older son as a child soldier, who tragically died in 2017 at age 16. The Stockholm District Court's presiding judge, Maria Ulfsdotter Klang, noted Ishaq's active participation in the systematic enslavement imposed by IS on Yazidi women and children.

The Yazidis, an ancient religious minority primarily located in northern Iraq's Sinjar region, faced a brutal genocidal campaign following IS's invasion in August 2014. Over three years, approximately 5,000 Yazidis were killed, and countless more were displaced, with 6,000 women and children captured and subjected to horrific abuses.

Born in Iraq to a Christian family, Ishaq emigrated to Sweden as a child and converted to Islam before her marriage. She was one among 300 Swedes who joined IS, a quarter of whom were women. After the collapse of the so-called IS caliphate in 2017, Ishaq fled to Turkey, where she was later extradited back to Sweden in 2020.

Dawood Khalaf, chairman of the Yazidi association in Skaraborg, praised Ishaq's prosecution for strengthening trust between the Yazidi community and Swedish authorities. He revealed that many Yazidi survivors had previously hesitated to testify in fear of retaliation. Despite her conviction, Ishaq's lawyer, Mikael Westerlund, stated that she continues to deny the charges and is contemplating an appeal.