Netherlands prosecuting first-ever case for enlsaving Yazidis in Syria

The Netherlands is prosecuting a woman for enslaving a Yazidi woman in Syria in 2015, the Public Prosecution Service (OM) announced on Friday. “It is the first time that someone in the Netherlands is being tried for a crime committed against Yazidis,” the OM said.

The Yazidi people are an ethnic and religious minority in northern Iraq. “ISIS not only committed terrorist crimes but is also held responsible for the genocide committed against the Yazidi population from 2014 in Syria and Iraq,” the OM said.

The suspected woman is charged with enslavement as a crime against humanity. She is one of 12 Dutch women who went to join ISIS in Syria and whom the Netherlands brought back from a Syrian prison camp in November last year.

All twelve women also face charges of terrorist crimes and belonging to a terrorist organization - Islamic State (ISIS). The first non-substantive hearings against the women will happen in the court in Rotterdam on Tuesday and Wednesday next week.