Court sentences woman to 7 years for son’s recruitment as Islamic State child soldier
A Dutch court in The Hague has sentenced 49-year-old Ayada K. to seven years in prison for multiple terrorism-related crimes, including allowing her son to be recruited as a child soldier by the Islamic State (IS) group in Syria and forcing her teenage daughter into two marriages with IS fighters.
K. is the first person in the Netherlands convicted for complicity in the recruitment and use of child soldiers.
The court found that K., originally from Naaldwijk, traveled from the Netherlands to Syria in October 2014 with her two minor children, then aged 13 and 15. According to the court, K. traveled via Syria, where she married an IS fighter she had contacted through Facebook.
The family lived for years in IS-controlled cities, including Al Bab and Raqqa. Judges concluded: “She has embraced the extremist ideology of IS and remained for years in territory controlled by IS. This continued until the end, when the caliphate fell. By her presence there, she strengthened IS's power."
The court found she facilitated terrorist activity through her marriage and later supported the work of both her husband and her son after his recruitment.
The son was recruited around October 2015, when he was 14, into IS religious and military training camps. In January 2016, he was assigned to IS’s military police in Raqqa. He carried a firearm, received income from the group, and was later transferred to guard and combat duties. He was killed on June 10, 2017, during bombings north of Raqqa.
Judges said K. did nothing to prevent her son from participating in IS camps or operations and that she also financially benefited from his income. She was additionally convicted of neglecting him, which the court ruled contributed to his death.
The court also held K. responsible for her daughter, who was married twice as a teenager to IS fighters.
The first husband moved in with the family before leaving. The daughter later remarried another IS fighter, who was killed in a 2017 airstrike.
After the collapse of the caliphate, K., her daughter, and the children lived in displacement camps in Syria. They returned to the Netherlands in May 2024, where K. was arrested.
The court further found that she deceived the children’s father in the Netherlands by taking the children under the pretense of a vacation to Turkey before continuing on to Syria, thereby removing them from his parental authority.
K. was also convicted of facilitating terrorist offenses by supporting her IS-affiliated husband’s activities and enabling similar conduct involving her son.
Prosecutors had demanded a seven-year sentence, which the court fully adopted. The court also considered that she endured harsh conditions in detention camps after the fall of IS when determining the sentence.
K. had previously said that she was “deeply affected” by the “bitter” accusation that she is the reason behind her son's IS deployment.
