Sema
A Dutch court has sentenced a 34-year-old woman, identified as Hasna A., to nine years in prison for enslaving an Ezidi woman from Sinjar during ISIS control in Syria, in a case described as the first of its kind in the Netherlands to be prosecuted as a crime against humanity.
The ruling was issued on Wednesday, March 25, 2026, by the Court of Appeal in The Hague, reducing a previous 10-year sentence handed down in 2024. The court also ordered the defendant to pay €15,000 in compensation to the Ezidi survivor, referred to as “Z.”
The court found the defendant, of Moroccan origin from Enschede, guilty of multiple charges, including enslavement, membership in ISIS, promoting terrorist crimes, and endangering her young child.
According to court findings, she traveled to Syria in 2015 to join ISIS, married one of its fighters, and later lived with another fighter who held an Ezidi woman in captivity. The victim was forced into domestic servitude in the defendant’s home in Raqqa.
The presiding judge stated that the victim’s freedom was gravely violated in a degrading manner, emphasizing that she was held as a slave for the defendant’s personal benefit.
The case followed appeals by both the prosecution, which sought a longer sentence, and the defendant, who denied most charges, claiming she had been forced to travel.
This marks the first trial in the Netherlands addressing crimes committed against Ezidis. Hearings were held under high security at Schiphol between February 9 and 12, 2026, with victims providing testimony.
The defendant was among a group of 12 Dutch women repatriated from Syria in 2022 and arrested upon arrival on suspicion of ISIS affiliation.