A Swedish court charged a 52-year-old woman with genocide for enslaving Yazidi women and children in her home in Raqqa between 2014 and 2016.

In the initial investigation opened in Sweden into the crimes committed by ISIS against Yazidis, the woman in question was charged with ‘genocide, crimes against humanity and serious war crimes’.

The woman, a Swedish citizen, was sentenced to six years in prison by a Swedish court in 2022 for allowing her 12-year-old son to be used as a child soldier by ISIS. AP and Reuters reported the name of the woman in detention as Lina Laina Ishaq.

Prosecutor Reena Devgun told AFP that during the previous investigation they had received witness testimony that ‘she had kept slaves in Raqqa’, which led to a deepening of the investigation.

According to Devgun, the woman's actions appeared to have contributed to ISIS' wider crimes against Yazidis.

Prosecutor Reena Devgun said that the woman was suspected of "buying or receiving civilian women and children belonging to the Yazidi minority in her residence in Raqqa in Syria", and treating them as slaves.

The prosecutor stated that the defendant detained nine people, three women and six children, who were held for between twenty days and seven months and forced to do household chores.

"Furthermore, they were subjected to severe suffering, slavery or other inhumane treatment. In violation of international law, they were deprived of liberty in the woman's home and prevented from leaving," Devgun said.

Devgun said that the women and children were photographed ‘for the purpose of being sold’. The evidence consists mainly of testimonies of the victims and people who visited the woman's home.

Under Swedish law, these offences are punishable by life imprisonment. The trial will start on 7 October and last at least two months.

According to intelligence services, around 300 Swedes, a quarter of them women, joined the ranks of ISIS in Syria and Iraq, especially in 2013 and 2014.