The national public prosecutor’s office (Nast) has decided to prosecute the women for participation in IS. The prosecution believes that the youngest sister (26) has participated in the terrorist organization for six years and the oldest (30) for eight years. – We believe that the prosecution decisions are serious. Especially because of the long period of time and the type of actions that are part of the indictments, says State Attorney Marit Formo to news. It is Formo and state prosecutor Anne Karoline Bakken Staff who will prosecute the case against the sisters in the Oslo district court in October. State Attorney Marit Formo at the National State Attorney’s Office. Photo: Mohammed Alayoubi / news Military camp, sharia course and marriage The sisters were brought to Norway last spring after spending ten years in Syria. The women have said that they are victims of human trafficking, and that they have never participated in “anything whatsoever” in connection with IS. However, the prosecution believes that they can prove that the sisters have voluntarily participated in a terrorist group. PROGRESS: With tremendous speed, the terrorist group IS took over large areas in Syria and Iraq. The group declared that they had established a caliphate in the areas, which was governed according to an extreme interpretation of the Koran. Photo: Ho / Zuma Press In addition to each marrying a foreign fighter, the prosecution believes that the sisters have carried out a number of activities that constitute punishable participation in IS: in the spring of 2014, the youngest is said to have made preparations to start a military training camp for IS women she is said to have sworn allegiance to IS and attended sharia courses in the caliphate, both are said to have tried to get other Norwegian women to join IS, the eldest has attended sharia courses, Koranic school and language training under the auspices of IS. She is also said to have taught English in the caliphate, the elder is said to have “handled incidents and reactions” against women who were considered enemies of IS, or who did not support IS’s ideology Will defend themselves in court The sisters plead not guilty. – They maintain that they traveled down to Syria to help the civilian population, says Hilde Firman Fjellså, who is defending the youngest sister. She points out that the client traveled down and got married, and that she then had no opportunity to get out of the marriage and Syria. Geir Lippestad is the defense attorney for the oldest woman. – My client is also very clear about the same. Women in Syria had no power in their own lives and it was a choice between being trapped in marriage or trapped in a prison-like women’s house. We know very well that these women’s shelters were also terrible places to be, says Lippestad to news. Lippestad says they look forward to being able to defend themselves in court. – They have been waiting for the indictment to come, and they are looking forward to explaining themselves in court and telling their story, says the defender to news. Photo: Alf Simensen / NTB – Training in using weapons The sisters came to Syria in the autumn of 2013. They were then 16 and 19 years old. According to the indictment, the teenagers had previously made an agreement with IS members to be received by them. According to the indictment, the sisters received transport and housekeeping during the first period. TEENAGERS: The sisters were 16 and 19 when they ran away from their childhood home in Bærum. According to the indictment, they had then made an agreement with IS to be received in Syria. Photo: Privat The following year, in 2014, the youngest allegedly tried to start a military training camp for women. – Part of the indictment is that in the spring of 2014 she made preparations with a view to starting a military training camp for women in ISIL. Among other things, by receiving training in the use of weapons, says State Attorney Formo. – You mean that she has trained with weapons? – Yes, we think so. That she has received training in using weapons. – What evidence do you have for that? – It mainly relies on evidence from electronic seizures, such as messages between her and other people, replies the public prosecutor. The defense attorney for the sister who is accused of this responds as follows to these accusations in the indictment. – My client completely rejects this basis. We look forward to answering it in court, says Hilde Firman Fjellså to news. WOMEN WITH WEAPONS: Several have described that IS had weapons training for women. A woman from the UK posted this photo on Twitter and described it as a fun day of self-defense training. Photo: Privat/Twitter – Was an English teacher In the IS caliphate, the sisters must have participated in several activities organized by IS. According to the indictment, the youngest attended Sharia courses. The eldest is said to have also attended Koranic school and received language training from IS. The prosecution believes she also teaches women and children English. – We believe these are active actions that are affected by the provision on participation in a terrorist organisation, as IS was established and organized during that period, says Formo. In 2019, IS was crushed militarily and lost its last territories in Syria. Like tens of thousands of other women, the sisters surrendered to the US-backed militia SDF. SURRENDER: Tens of thousands of women outside Baghouz, the last IS enclave in Syria. Photo: Bulent Kilic / AFP They were placed in the large Al Hol detention camp. The prosecutor’s office believes that at this point the youngest sister stopped participating in IS, while the eldest participated until May 2021. Supposed to have “handled” reactions Earlier this year, news revealed that several women and government officials in the area believed that the sisters had acted as a kind of morality police in the internment camps. This is said to have happened because the sisters sanctioned women who did not follow IS’s ideology. Now the prosecution believes it can prove through electronic seizures that the eldest sisters had such a function in the Al Hol camp. – We believe the evidence in the case shows that she had a role in handling incidents and reactions against various people in the camp, who were considered enemies or opponents of IS, says state attorney Formo about the 30-year-old. COURT: On 8 October, the trial against the sisters starts in the Oslo District Court. Photo: news / Mohammed Alayoubi – It is well known that IS had a morality police in its caliphate, and that this morality police continued to operate in the detention camps. Do you think that she has been part of such a grouping? – I don’t want to put a label on it, but we believe that she has been involved in and had a role together with other IS-affiliated women in the camp by handling reactions against other people. Defense attorney Geir Lippestad has spoken to the eldest sister whom he represents about this point in the indictment. – She rejects these charges. It will be part of what we will talk about and clarify in court, what real choices the women had in these camps, says Lippestad to news. – Does she deny having been a member of a group that resembled the moral police? – Yes, she does. According to the indictment, the eldest sister planned to flee from the Al Hol camp to the Idlib area in Syria. There must have been a women’s house there for IS women. Were the sisters volunteers in Syria? During the trial, a central theme will be whether the sisters married voluntarily and voluntarily joined IS. – Our view is that the evidence in the case shows that the actions that are part of the prosecution decisions are voluntary, says Formo. Only one other woman has been sentenced in Norway for participating in a terrorist organization after being in IS-controlled territory. The woman’s sentence was constantly reduced, and the Court of Appeal concluded that she was a victim of human trafficking. After several rounds in court, the Supreme Court concluded that the correct punishment for the woman was one year and four months in prison. The Norwegian-Pakistani woman was friends with the eldest sister when they were growing up. The defenders of the two sisters from Bærum, who are now being prosecuted, are concerned that having been a housewife in the IS area should not necessarily be punished. – This case is about whether she and her sister can be considered participants in a terrorist organization through being spouses and housewives, and whether this is what they had in mind when they left, says Hilde Firman Fjellså, who defends the youngest sister. Defense attorneys Geir Lippestad and Hilde Firman Fjellså believe that the prosecution has stretched the concept of terrorist participation and support too far. Photo: Mohammed Alayoubi / news She believes they cannot be judged on that basis. – Being a spouse and a housewife in itself is not enough to be convicted of being a member of or contributing to a terrorist organisation, says Fjellså. Lippestad, who defends the other sister, is also clear that he believes it should not be possible to be punished for being in the situation the women were in. – We must remember that women had very little power over their own lives in IS-controlled Syria, Lippestad tells news. Published 23.08.2024, at 11.15 Updated 23.08.2024, at 11.28
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The youngest received weapons training, the oldest dealt with IS opponents – news Norway – Overview of news from different parts of the country
