Hamburg, March 24, (dpa/GNA) – A 44-year-old mother of two has been sentenced to six and a half years in prison by a German court, following her return from Syria, where she joined the self-proclaimed caliphate of the Islamic State.
The higher regional court in Hamburg found the defendant guilty of membership in a terrorist organization; a war crime; violation of her duty of care; and involuntary manslaughter.
The woman, a German national from the northern town of Bad Oldesloe, had travelled to Syria with her husband in August 2016. She took her 14-year-old son with her, who received military training from the Sunni terrorist militia, and fought in the war.
He died in February 2018, at the age of 15, in a bomb attack.
The court found that the defendant had knowingly taken her son to a war zone and, because of her radical Islamist beliefs, had accepted that he would be recruited as a child soldier by an armed group.
She had instructed her older son to also travel to Syria to join Islamic State, but he stayed in Germany.
The state prosecutor had been seeking a prison sentence of seven and a half years for the woman. The defence asked for a term of two years and three months.
The woman can appeal Thursday’s ruling.
GNA