The convicted Swedish citizen joined ISIL (Da’esh) and moved her family to Syria in 2013. In February 2025, she was sentenced to twelve years’ imprisonment for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes – so-called core international crimes – committed against nine Ezidi victims. Six of these victims were children under the age of seven at the time. 

The success of this case was the result of extensive cooperation between Sweden, France, the Netherlands and Belgium in a joint investigation team (JIT) examining alleged core international crimes against Ezidi victims. The JIT was set up in 2022 with the support of Eurojust and the Genocide Prosecution Network. The Swedish perpetrator was identified through the work of the JIT. 

Today’s final judgment is groundbreaking, as it is the first-ever to be handed down for genocide through the transfer of children, with minors as the central victims. It also confirms a conviction for genocide through severe suffering. This latter part includes underlying acts of enslavement and the systematic suppression of the Ezidi entity through restrictions on language, religion and forced conversion. 

In the light of future prosecutions involving Ezidi victims, the verdict of the district court has been translated into English, French and Arabic and is available in the Genocide Prosecution Network database on core international crimes. This translation was done with the support of the National Authorities against Impunity Project (IMPNA), which is also hosted at Eurojust.

IMPNA aims to reduce the number of ‘safe havens’ for perpetrators of core international crimes, through cooperation of EU Member States’ national authorities and those of countries outside the European Union. Based on the principle of universal jurisdiction, the prosecution of core international crimes committed outside the territory of an EU Member State is possible. 

The Genocide Prosecution Network supports EU authorities in their work to prosecute core international crimes, for example by facilitating the exchange of information and best practices. This has led to an increase in cases against ISIL (Da’esh) suspects across the European Union and the development of cumulative prosecution practices. In such cases, indictments for terrorism are cumulated with charges for core international crimes to increase the potential penalty level for perpetrators and bring justice to victims.