ISIS returnee Monika K. arrested in Frankfurt

The ISIS returnee, Monika K., was arrested by officers of the Federal Police and the Hagen Police Headquarters upon her entry to Frankfurt Airport on Friday. On Saturday, the German national was brought before the investigating judge at the Federal Supreme Court, who executed an arrest warrant dated 29 November 2021 for alleged membership of ISIS.

According to the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office, the warrant essentially charges the accused with the following offences:

“Monika K. is a follower of Salafist Islam. In July 2013, she and her husband, who was married according to Islamic rites, travelled from Germany via Egypt to Syria. There, both joined the terrorist organisation ‘Islamic State’ in February 2014 at the latest. After the husband died fighting for the organisation in 2015, the accused married two more ISIS fighters in succession. She lived with her respective husbands in various places under ISIS rule in Iraq and Syria until the beginning of 2019. She ran the joint household and was remunerated by ISIS for this.”

According to the Office of the Attorney General of Germany, Monika K. was allegedly arrested by “Kurdish forces” in January or February 2019. This refers to the multi-ethnic military association “Syrian Democratic Forces” (SDF), which smashed ISIS territorial rule in north-eastern Syria three years ago at great sacrifice and has since been left alone to guard and care for tens of thousands of ISIS members. Monika K. was taken to the Al-Hol reception and internment camp near Hesekê. There, according to the Federal Prosecutor’s Office, she ran a donation network for female members of ISIS. She directly solicited funds for ISIS members in refugee camps via various messenger services. In December 2019, the accused was smuggled out of Al-Hol by a higher-ranking ISIS member and married him as a second wife according to Islamic rites. The couple moved to Idlib, from where Monika K. continued to provide financial support to ISIS members, in particular to smuggle them out of refugee camps back to the association. In addition, she made herself available for the receipt of corresponding funds and maintained contact between fundraisers in Germany on the one hand and female ISIS members to be supported in Syria on the other hand”.

The further information provided by the Office of the Federal Prosecutor is imprecise: “Monika K. was arrested in September 2020 on her way to Al-Hol, where she wanted to contact ISIS members. She was in Turkish custody since then until her return to Germany.” It remains unclear by whom Monika K. was arrested and where she has been for the last year and a half.