Indictment against a Suspected Member of the Foreign Terrorist Organisation “Islamic State (IS)” on Counts of Crimes against Humanity, War Crimes, and Aiding and Abetting Genocide, Among Others

Year of issue 2022
Date 14.04.2022

On 18 March 2022, the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office pressed charges against

the German national Jalda A.

before the State Security Chamber of the Hanseatic Higher Regional Court Hamburg.

The accused is strongly suspected of membership of a foreign terrorist organisation (section 129a (1) no. 1, section 129b (1) sentences 1 and 2 of the German Criminal Code [StGB]). Furthermore, she is accused of crimes against humanity (section 7 (1) of the German Code of Crimes Against International Law [VStGB]), aiding and abetting crimes against humanity (section 7 (1) VStGB, section 27 StGB), war crimes (section 8 (1), section 9 (1) VStGB), aidign and abetting war crimes (section 8 (1) VStGB, section 27 StGB), as well as aiding and abetting genocide (section 6 (1) VStGB, section 27 StGB). Partially, the charges constitute criminal offences as per StGB (§ 177 in connection with section 27, section 223 (1) in connection with section 224 (1) nos. 1 and 2, section 223a, section 239 StGB).

In essence, the submitted bill of indictment establishes the following facts:

In April 2014, Jalda A. travelled to Syria via Turkey in order to join the foreign terrorist organisation “Islamic State (IS)”. Shortly after her arrival in Syria, she married and IS fighter according to Islamic rite. The accused and her husband lived in the urban Tal Abyad and Raqqa areas in a total of three houses or apartments successively. Their lawful owners had fled from IS or had been displaced by IS. The husband and other IS fighters raided one of the houses by force of arms while the accused was watching the incident. Jalda A. carried out household chores for her husband, hence enabling him to be active for IS. In February 2015, she gave birth to a son and raised him in accordance with IS ideology. During her stay in Tal Abyad, the accused and her husband regularly attended “IS-measures of punishment” as spectators during which so-called infidels were abused and partially stoned to death.

After her husband died in combat in April 2015, Jalda A. became the “Second Wife” of another IS fighter, as per Islamic rite.

From September to October 2017, the accused had been married to a third IS fighter, as per Islamic rite. She and he lived together in different abodes - provided by IS - in and around the Syrian city of Mayadin. At that time, the husband held a Yezidi woman as slave, who he raped regularly. Jalda A. was aware of it. She herself abused the captive almost on a daily basis. Accordingly, she repeatedly beat and kicked her, tore her hair and pushed her head against the wall. On one occasion, she hit the slave’s head with a torch. In addition, the accused and her husband coerced the slave into unremunerated household work and childcare, thwarted her escape by means of incessant surveillance and repeatedly demanded that she pray according to Islamic rite. All of this served IS’ objective to exterminate the Yezidi belief.

Since the end of 2017, Jalda A. had been detained by Kurdish forces in Syria. In the context of her re-entry into Germany, she was taken into custody on 7 October 2021 and has been in pre-trial detention ever since. On 17 January 2022, the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office took over the investigations from the Hamburg Public Prosecution Office (see Press Release No. 4 of 9 February 2022).