A 52-year-old Swedish, Lina Ishaq, may be spending many months in correctional centers for allegedly abusing women and children of the Yazidi religious minority in Syria.
Ishaq also faces charges of genocide and war crimes between 2014-2016 against the Yazidi women.
The allegations against the 52-year-old were said to have been perpetrated barely 10 years before now.
According to Prosecutor Reena Devgun, in a statement on Thursday, the accused was suspected of “buying or receiving civilian women and children belonging to the Yazidi minority in her residence in Raqqa in Syria”, and treating them as slaves.
Furthermore, they were subjected to severe suffering, slavery, or other inhumane treatment. In violation of international law they were deprived of liberty in the woman’s home and prevented from leaving,” she said.
Devgun added that Ishaq had traveled to Syria to support the establishment of Islamic State (IS) rule, a militant Islamist group that took control of large areas of Syria and Iraq in 2014 but was later defeated.
The prosecution agency said crimes against humanity can include murder, rape, torture, and forced labor if they are part of a widespread or systematic attack against a group of civilians.
However, the accused lawyer Mikael Westerlund stated that Ishaq has denied the charges levelled against her.
Ishaq case marks the first time Sweden has brought genocide charges, exercising its jurisdiction to try individuals for crimes committed abroad that violate international law.
In 2022 a Swedish court found her guilty of war crimes and violation of international law for failing to prevent her 12-year-old son from becoming a child soldier in the northern Syrian city of Raqqa when it was under IS rule.
