The Stockholm District Court found L. I. guilty for her involvement in IS’ campaign against the Yazidi community. After establishing that IS’ August 2014 Sinjar offensive and the subsequent pattern of killings, enslavement, rape, forced transfer of children, and destruction of religious sites amounted to genocide, crimes against humanity, and serious war crimes, the court examined L. I.’s individual accountability.
The nine victims in the case—three women and six children—were all Yazidis captured during the Sinjar attack after their male relatives were executed or went missing. They were moved through various IS collection points and bases in Iraq and Syria, where they endured severe abuse and were traded as slaves. Ultimately, all nine victims came under L. I.’s control at her residence in Raqqa.
The court found that L. I. knowingly accepted these enslaved Yazidis into her home, treated them as her property, and kept them in captivity. She controlled their movement, forced household chores, restricted their food, and physically assaulted at least one woman and one child. She compelled the women and older children to attend Qur’an lessons, pray multiple times daily, and banned the use of the Kurmanji language. She also prohibited Yazidi religious and cultural practices and forced women and girls to wear religiously prescribed clothing. Repeatedly, she called them “infidels” and “slaves” and, in some cases, played IS execution videos to threaten them. L. I. also arranged staged photographs of the victims for sale within IS’ slavery network and helped transfer two family groups to other IS members, knowing they would face further rape, suffering, and separation.
The court concluded that these actions, carried out with IS’ genocidal intent, constituted genocide, crimes against humanity, and serious war crimes. It sentenced her to 12 years in prison and awarded 150,00 SEK in moral damages to each surviving victim.
