She did not pull a mine when the terror charges were brought. But three audio messages brought tears to her eyes

Saithan

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She did not pull a mine when the terror charges were brought. But three audio messages brought tears to her eyes​

A 23-year-old woman is accused of having been part of Islamic State in Syria. But that was a completely different interpretation she herself gave in court on Monday.

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The court in Glostrup, Monday 17 February 2020
Photo: Liselotte Sabroe

Monday, August 16, 2021, at 15.07


The woman, who is accused of terrorism, repeats that she has "a really bad memory".

"Do you have such a bad memory that you may have forgotten you were in Syria?" Asks senior plaintiff Bo Bjerregaard.

"No," she replies.

According to the prosecution, the woman traveled as an 18-year-old from Denmark to Turkey and on to Syria to join the brutal terrorist regime Islamic State in Syria .

That was a somewhat different explanation, the now 23-year-old woman from Copenhagen's Vestegn came to court in Glostrup on Monday.

The woman denies all charges. She claims that she traveled to Turkey to be with her boyfriend - whose existence the police have not managed to find a single trace of.

Sitting on the dock does not look like the young woman exactly what many might want to associate with an IS jihadist.

She is dressed in a tight-fitting red blouse and black skirt that ends well above the knees. The dark hair hangs loosely down over the shoulders.

A somewhat different appearance than when she was in 2015 for a so-called radicalization and concern interview with two officers. It was her parents who had contacted PET because they were worried that their daughter would 'travel to Syria and fight'.

At the time, she was wearing a niqab that covers most of her body and face. She would not shake hands with the officers.

But it was not because of her faith, she says in court today. It was her boyfriend in Turkey who would not accept that she walked around uncovered or touched a stranger's hand.

FACTS​

23-year-old woman accused of joining Islamic State - and luring her sister along​


  • A 23-year-old woman from Copenhagen's Vestegn is accused of having joined the extremist, militant terrorist organization Islamic State in Syria.
  • With her presence, she has "promoted the organization's activities" and contributed to Islamic State being able to maintain its position in the area, the accusations are.
  • In addition, she is accused of having resided without permission in the Raqqa province of Syria, which was known as the stronghold of Islamic State.
  • According to the prosecution, the woman even encouraged her little sister to join the Islamic State.
  • In 2018, the little sister, her fiancé and two friends were convicted of a failed attempt to join Islamic State, and in 2019, the verdict was upheld in the Eastern High Court. All four were sentenced to three years in prison and three of them were deported.
  • Judgment in the case is expected on August 25.


Not a trace of the girlfriend​

Before the woman left Denmark, she was "less than five" Muslim on a scale from one to ten, she says.

At that time she lived in Gladsaxe at her parents' home and studied single subjects at HF. Here she went to class with a person who was later convicted of attempting to join Islamic State - along with the defendant's little sister.
When the accused woman traveled to Turkey in 2016, it was her classmate who paid with her Dankort.

In court, the 23-year-old woman explained on Monday that she traveled to Turkey to be with her boyfriend. A man she had written and video chatted with on various social media since she was 15 or 16 years old, but had not met in real life - and whom her parents were not allowed to know.

“You don’t just have a boyfriend in our culture. You don't just travel alone, "she said.

According to the woman, she initially had a nice life with her boyfriend in a small Turkish town. But within a few months, he changed character. He became aggressive, started drinking, and she was not allowed to go outside.

Therefore, according to her explanation, she fled his apartment and was subsequently in various places in Turkey and Egypt, until in March 2019 she was apprehended by Turkish authorities.

However, she cannot remember an address at any of the places she should have lived. And since her phone was taken by the Turkish authorities, she also has no pictures from the three-year period.

On the 23-year-old woman's computer and on a backup of her phone, police have found searches for so-called "jihad nasheeds" - "holy war hymns" - maps of Syria, pictures of niqab-clad women and children with weapons and IS flags and thousands of text messages and instant messages.

But the alleged girlfriend in Turkey, the police have not been able to find any kind of exchange of messages with. And among the phone's over 38,000 stored photos, there was not a single one of him either.

Three audio messages caused the defendant to wipe his eyes​

Just like on Thursday, the first of six court days, the 23-year-old woman is alert and composed while giving her explanation.

As the prosecutor reviews a series of messages the prosecution believes have been sent between the defendant and her little sister, there is much she cannot recognize or remember.

The woman has a very poor memory, she explains several times.

"I'm in, you can do no more," prosecutor Bo Bjerregaard reads from the messages.

"You can not get me back, the only thing you get out of it is that suitcases can track me."

Asked what kuffar means, the accused woman answers quite briefly:

"Disbelief."

The woman can also not explain why her phone shortly after her departure has been on a wireless network in Turkey, which according to police belongs to a man they know. He was sentenced to six years and four months in prison for terrorism in 2008, and is also imprisoned in absentia - without being present - in the so-called drone case .

"I was in shock when the police said that," the 23-year-old woman said.

But when prosecutor Bo Bjerregaard plays three audio files that her sister has sent her, she has to wipe her eyes with a napkin.

She remembers them well.

The three audio messages were sent on March 8, 2017. It is the same day that the little sister drove her fiancé and two others to Copenhagen Airport. All four have since been convicted of trying to join Islamic State.

»Now I am alone in Denmark. Again. All those I love have left me. I do not have anyone left, "it reads, among other things.

‘I do not know why my test is always that those I love leave me. First you, now my husband… «

Sent pictures because she thought they were nice​

In the message correspondence, the little sister repeatedly asks the big sister to get her "tazkiyah" - a kind of personal recommendation from an IS member that one should use to gain access to Islamic State in Syria. Reference is repeatedly made to a man who was to help the little sister 'in'.

According to the accused, this is the place where the little sister has to 'enter' the small town in Turkey, where she herself was. The man who has to help is her then boyfriend's friend, she explains.

According to the prosecution, it is a man who has been extradited to the United States, accused of having recruited members to Islamic State.

Prosecutor Bo Bjerregaard also asks the 23-year-old woman about three pictures she has sent to her little sister.

They are slightly shaken and represent greyish water with concrete remains in and some buildings on the horizon. According to police, they were probably taken in the Raqqa province of Syria, formerly known as the stronghold of Islamic State.

The woman says she found the pictures online and sent them to her sister because she "thought the pictures were nice".

A verdict is expected in the case on August 25, and the woman risks more than four years in prison.


*Google translate*
 

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