(Brussels Times) The widows of three Islamic State combatants killed in the field have been sentenced to five years in prison and will lose their Belgian nationality on release, a court in Brussels has ruled.
All of the women were tried in absentia. Two are currently being held in a prison camp run by Kurdish opponents of IS. The third, the 26-year-old widow of a leading figure in Sharia4Belgium, is reported to be on her way to Belgium with her children. On her return she will be taken into custody given the risk of flight, but like the others if they ever set foot on Belgian soil, she will have to be tried again.
The three women left Belgium for Syria in 2013. Hafsa M., now aged 27, left with her husband and their young child.
