Hasna A. denies having kept a Yazidi woman as a slave

Hasna A. denied that she enslaved a Yazidi woman in Syria in 2015, her lawyers said in court on Tuesday. The court held its first preliminary hearing regarding the suspect, a 31-year-old from Hengelo.

The Public Prosecution Service (OM) accused the woman of slavery offenses. In the Syrian city of Raqqa, she is alleged to have forced the woman to carry out housework, cleaning and cooking for many hours a day. "She has used the woman as a tool by using her as a slave," said the prosecutor.

It is the first time that someone in the Netherlands has been tried for a crime committed against Yazidis, a religious and ethnic Kurdish minority mainly living in northern Iraq. "Today is a special day that the Yazidi community has been waiting for for a long time," the prosecutor said. "The Yazidi community has been completely disrupted, displaced and traumatized by the actions of IS. IS treated Yazidis as if they were disenfranchised objects with which you could do anything."

During interrogations on the subject of slavery, A. invoked her right to remain silent. The Public Prosecution Service based their suspicion on three witnesses, including the Yazidi woman.

A.'s lawyer does not believe that a case of slavery can be proven. "It's not true that my client kept her as a slave. My client was just in an acquaintance's house," the attorney said, adding that A. did what her husband told her to do. "Our client wants to quickly get rid of the stigma of slavery for which she is suspected."

The defense also wants to hear the Yazidi woman as a witness, who is only referred to with the initial Z. for the sake of her safety. The court will allow that. They will also be allowed to submit written questions to UNITAD, the United Nations team that is investigating crimes committed by IS in Iraq.

A. is one of the 12 women picked up from a prison camp in Syria last November. The women and their 28 children arrived in the Netherlands on November 1 after years of detention in camps with poor living conditions. The Cabinet decided to bring the women back so that they can be prosecuted in the Netherlands for their possible involvement with IS. If this was not done within a certain timeframe, their cases would not have been allowed to continue.

A. has been in custody in the Netherlands since November. Initially, this was on suspicion of terrorism-related crimes due to involvement with IS. The court decided that the pre-trial detention now also applies to the suspicion of slavery crimes.

A.'s case is being handled in Rotterdam by the District Court of The Hague, the court that deals with international crimes. The case will continue on April 25.