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Defendant before the Hanseatic Higher Regional Court: “The accusation described is unfortunately true”

Photo: Markus Scholz/dpa

A trial against a suspected returnee from the Islamic State (IS) in Syria began on Monday with a confession before the Hanseatic Higher Regional Court.

"The accusation described in the indictment is unfortunately true," said one of the 32-year-old's two defense attorneys on Monday. The Hamburg Public Prosecutor's Office accuses the woman of membership in a terrorist organization abroad.

She is said to have traveled from Hamburg via Turkey to Syria in March 2015 and married a terrorist organization fighter there. She lived with her husband in the IS stronghold of Raqqa and was trained by him in how to use a Kalashnikov. She was constantly armed to defend IS territory.

Raved about the beautiful life in Raqqa

She is said to have raved about life in the Islamic State to a witness in Germany. After her husband's death, she lived in a house for widows of "warriors of God." At the end of July 2015, she was arrested while illegally entering Turkey and deported to Germany a week later.

The German, who was born and raised in Hamburg, reported that she converted to Islam in 2014. The reason was her mother's serious illness. Friends of hers also converted to Islam. They formed a WhatsApp group together.

Then she fell in love with a man who joined IS as a fighter. He urged her to follow him to Syria. She traveled after her love. “I throw my hands up over my head that I took such a trip,” she said in her statement.

The defendant stated that she was a devout Muslim. At the same time, she distanced herself from IS in her statement. Before her trip to Syria, she ignored everything bad there. A woman told her that there was war there, but everything was safe. She didn't think about what her husband did as a fighter, she said when asked by the presiding judge, Norbert Sakuth.

They married immediately after their arrival in Syria. According to the Attorney General's Office, she received shooting training from her husband on the same day. The couple lived together in a suburb of Raqqa. She didn't ask herself how her husband, who also came from Germany, got to the apartment. There was a Kalashnikov rifle next to the bed and her husband also kept a hand grenade.

$1,000 for husband's death from ISIS

In May 2015, the husband died in fighting. The woman from Hamburg received $1,000 in compensation from IS and had to move into a widow's house. But she wanted to return to Germany.

In July she had the opportunity to travel near Turkey and crossed the border on foot. Her relationship with IS at the time raised questions for the court. Shortly before her return, Sakuth said she praised the conditions in IS territory in a chat.

From Germany she wrote to a woman in Syria that she actually wanted to go back to Raqqa. Leaving the land of Sharia is a sin. In Germany you see “naked women and smoking men everywhere.” But according to her own statements, the defendant could not remember this statement.

In 2016 she met her current husband. The woman continues that their three children are her everything. In Germany, the defendant was observed by the authorities until two years ago, as the statement read out further revealed.

ala/dpa