The two sisters are accused of having participated in the terrorist organization IS. The trial against them started on Tuesday. The sisters smiled and talked to each other before the court was seen. Both are dressed in long dresses and colored hijabs. Both sisters pleaded not guilty in court on Tuesday morning after the indictment was read out. Marit Formo is prosecuting the case against the two sisters for the National Prosecutor’s Office. Photo: Hedda Kurseth / news According to state attorney Marit Formo, who is the prosecutor in the case, the sisters have been in dozens of interviews with the police. – The plan for the trip to Syria was aid work, and they deny that the purpose was to become part of ISIL or other rebel groups in Syria, says Formo in his inaugural speech. The prosecutor believes that this was not relief work in the traditional sense, and that the purpose was to help IS’s armed struggle. – I feel that they acknowledge that they were part of ISIL, but that this was not voluntary: – They experienced coercion, control and various forms of abuse from their husbands, adds Formo. During the first week of the trial, the two sisters will give their statements to the court. Lawyer Geir Lippestad defends the eldest sister. Photo: Hedda Kurseth / news They were welcomed by Norwegian foreign fighters The public prosecutor’s office believes that before the sisters traveled to Syria, they went through a radicalization process in the Islamist environment in the East. They were received by other Norwegian foreign fighters in Syria, such as Norwegian-Chilean Bastian Vasquez and his wife. She is now convicted of supporting IS and will later testify in the trial against the two sisters. After the accused crossed the border into Syria, they stayed with Vasquez and his wife for two days. In the same period, just over a hundred people traveled from Norway to take part in IS, according to Formo. – It is the prosecution’s opinion that the defendants were also involved in this recruitment operation. Prior to the trip, the sisters were active in the Islamist youth organization Islam Net and were in the environment around the militant organization Profeten Ummah. Arfan Bhatti and Ubaydullah Hussain were central figures here. The two sisters married and had children with foreign fighters in Syria after they arrived there. Author Åsne Seierstad has written the book “To søstre” about the two sisters from Bærum. She is in court on Tuesday. Photo: Cornelius Poppe / NTB Geir Lippestad, the eldest sister’s defender, says that the defendant does not deny that she married an IS fighter, but denies that it is a criminal offense to be married and a housewife. The prosecutor in the case says that if one can prove that they were in Syria voluntarily, it could still be a criminal offence. New information postpones the court case Last week, the main negotiations in the case were actually supposed to start. New information meant that this had to wait. The prosecutor believes that this information should have no bearing on the question of guilt. The defenders disagree on this. There are many who will testify in the case over the next few weeks, both family and friends. According to the prosecutor, there is a lot of electronic evidence that is central. Photo: GUNNAR BRATTHAMMER / news The prosecution has received a phone from British authorities which they believe the eldest sister used when they were interned in the Al Hol camp in Syria. Evidence from this phone as well as other phones, tablets and documentation from social media must be reviewed in court. A woman who the prosecution believes was a Yezidi slave will testify in the case. She must have lived together with the two sisters at one point, and will explain what she saw and heard there. – But there is no suspicion that the defendants had anything to do with her as a slave, says the public prosecutor. Was in Syria for ten years The two sisters escaped from Bærum to Syria when they were 16 and 19 years old back in 2013. They must have told their family that they wanted this to wage jihad. Eleven years after they left Norway, the indictment came from the National State Attorney’s Office (Nast). They believe the youngest sister (27) has participated in IS for six years and the oldest (30) for eight years. The sisters and the three daughters when they landed at Gardermoen. Photo: Alf Simensen / NTB In 2023, i.e. ten years after they first left, they were brought home to Norway by PST. When they landed on Norwegian soil, they were arrested and charged with having participated in the terrorist organization IS. They were picked up in the Roj detention camp in Syria together with their three daughters. Photo: Private Prosecutor’s Office believes the sisters have carried out several acts that constitute punishable participation in IS: They have both married a foreign fighter. The youngest sister is said to have prepared to start a military training camp for IS women. She is said to have sworn allegiance to IS and attended Sharia courses. Both sisters are said to have tried to get other Norwegian women to join IS. The eldest sister is said to have attended sharia courses, Koranic school, and language training in IS, as well as teaching English. The elder is said to have “handled incidents and reactions” against women who were seen as enemies of IS, or who did not support IS’s ideology. The sisters plead guilty. – They insist that they traveled down to Syria to help the civilian population, said Hilde Firman Fjellså, who is defending the youngest sister when the indictment became known. news met the sisters in the refugee camp In 2021, news met the two sisters in the Roj refugee camp in Syria. They then told about how they traveled there to help the Syrians, and that they were disappointed by what they encountered. Photo: Gunnar Bratthammer / news It was two years earlier that the IS caliphate collapsed and the terrorist organization was driven out of the Syrian village of Baghouz. After the sisters had surrendered, they were interned in the Al Hol refugee camp by Kurdish self-governing forces. Thousands of women who were suspected of IS affiliation were held in this camp. Later, the two were moved to camp Roj. – We want to return to the family now. There is no life here. There is no future here, one of the sisters told news at the time. At home in Bærum, they had a mother, father and three brothers. Published 15.10.2024, at 09.08 Updated 15.10.2024, at 15.03
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Today the trial starts against the Bærum sisters accused of having participated in IS – news Norway – Overview of news from different parts of the country
