ISIS returnee sentenced to six and a half years in prison in Hamburg

Today, Thursday, the verdict was announced in the trial of ISIS returnee Stefanie A. from Bad Oldesloe. The 44-year-old was sentenced to a total of six years and six months in prison. She was found guilty of two counts of membership of a terrorist organization under § 129 b, war crimes against persons and breach of duty of care.

In the reasons for the verdict, it was explained that Stefanie A. had been a member of a terrorist organization that existed abroad – the so-called “Islamic State” (ISIS) – and had participated in its goals. In the summer of 2016, Stefanie A. traveled to Syria with her then 13-year-old son. There they first ended up with the jihadist militia “Jund al-Aqsa” and then joined ISIS. The 14-year-old boy was handed over to the militia as a child soldier, thus committing a war crime under the international Criminal Code. Stefanie A. also violated her duty of care and education by taking her son to a civil war zone. He took an active part in combat operations and had been in acute danger of death on several occasions. On February 23, 2018, the boy was killed in a bomb attack. Because Stefanie A. brought him into IS’ area of control, she was also found guilty of involuntary manslaughter.

Her husband and father of her sons – a native of Palestine – had already joined ISIS in Syria in 2015. The couple had remained loyal to ISIS until the end, surrendering to the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) only in February 2019 in the last ISIS enclave of Hajin. The man was sent to a prison near Hesekê, the woman to the Hol reception and internment camp near Hesekê, from which she was able to escape in late 2020 or early 2021 by means of a smuggler in the direction of Turkey. On March 24, 2021, Stefanie A. was transferred to Germany, where she was arrested upon arrival in Berlin and placed in pre-trial detention.

Victim narrative not convincing

Already in the plea of the Federal Prosecutor’s Office, it was pointed out not to believe the victim narrative of the defendant. The defendant’s attempts to portray herself as a naïve wife who only followed her husband and came to his aid after a serious injury were refuted accordingly in the reasons for the verdict. Thus, their plans to leave the country had already existed before her husband’s injury, but she only developed the corresponding narrative during her internment at Hol Camp.

In fact, Stefanie A. had radicalized herself at the latest after her husband left the country and had increasingly recognized it as her duty as a believer to live in ISIS territory. After the ISIS attacks in Paris, she said that the victims deserved to die. She told her son that it was important to humiliate and hate the infidels. From Syria, she said, she had urged her older son in Germany to come to ISIS territory as well, and that he should be happy about the “martyrdom” of his younger brother. Even after the military defeat of ISIS, she defended the terrorist organization in a telephone conversation with her sister in 2020. 

While the federal prosecution demanded seven years and six months, the defense pleaded for two years and three months in prison. The defendant can appeal the verdict.

Upcoming trials and the fight for clarification and justice

There will be more trials against ISIS returnees in the future. Therefore, a trial monitoring group continues to call on the public to follow the proceedings. The trials of Europeans who have joined jihadist groups such as ISIS are historically significant and urgently need to be observed and documented in order to be able to stand up and fight for full and complete clarification and justice.