Charges brought against female ISIS member in Germany

The Federal Prosecutor’s Office in Karlsruhe has brought charges against the German-Iranian jihadist Solale M. before the State Protection Senate of the Higher Regional Court of the Hanseatic City. The woman, who is said to have been a member of the ISIS women’s unit “Katiba Nusaiba” in Syria, is accused of membership in a terrorist organisation abroad, severe deprivation of minors and violation of the duty of care and education, as the judicial authority announced on Friday. The jihadist is one of a total of eight ISIS women who were brought back to Germany by the federal government in October last year, together with 23 children.

Solale M., who has both German and Iranian citizenship, allegedly travelled to Syria via Turkey in June 2014 with her husband, who was married according to Islamic rites, and two children. The father of her daughter, from whom she divorced in 2012 and who has the right of access, only found out about the abduction when M. was already out of the country and has since tried to persuade German authorities to repatriate her. After ISIS declared the “Caliphate” shortly after their arrival in Syria, Solale M. and her husband joined the terrorist militia.

In Syria, Solale M. lived with her husband and two children in various places in the ISIS-controlled area, including Tabqa and Raqqa. The husband had been responsible for preparing attacks in Europe by ISIS mercenaries disguised as refugees, while she herself had been part of the so-called Nusaiba battalion, in which mostly foreign women were trained in the use of weapons and booby traps.

At the end of 2017, the family left ISIS territory, but was arrested by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) as they fled. The husband ended up in a prison controlled by the SDF, while M. and her children lived in a reception and internment camp in the north-eastern Syrian autonomous region until the beginning of October. Since her arrival in Germany, the woman has been in pre-trial detention. The Hanseatic Higher Regional Court in Hamburg will now decide on the charges.