(NL Times) Hasna A. denied in court on Monday that she enslaved two Yazidi women during her time in Syria. It was the first day of the 33-year-old Hengelo woman’s criminal trial, the first time a case for crimes committed against the Yazidi people has been tried in the Netherlands.
The Public Prosecution Service suspects A. of having travelled to Syria in 2015 to join terrorist organisation ISIS, and thus also putting her 4-year-old son in a vulnerable position. He has been diagnosed as being on the autism spectrum, and having a psychiatric disorder. He was unable to attend school in Syria.
“I wanted to build a new life in the caliphate,” the woman stated in the courtroom near Schiphol Airport on Monday. “I wanted to leave the Netherlands and was looking for peace.”
