Swedish Court Sentences Lina Ishaq to 12 Years for Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity

Stockholm, February 11, 2025

The Stockholm District Court has sentenced Lina Ishaq to 12 years in prison for genocide, crimes against humanity, and severe war crimes committed against Ezidi women and children in Raqqa, Syria, during 2014 and 2015. The case is part of broader international efforts to hold members of the Islamic State (IS) accountable for their systematic persecution of the Ezidi minority.

Stockholm District Court.

Photo: Ezidi Times ©.

ISIS’s Genocide Against the Ezidi People

The crimes are linked to IS’s well-documented campaign against the Ezidis, an ethnic and religious minority native to the Sinjar region of northern Iraq (Mesopotamia). On August 3, 2014, IS launched coordinated attacks on Ezidi villages, capturing thousands of Ezidis with the intent to either kill them, force them to convert to Islam, or integrate them into ISIS’s so-called caliphate.

Men who refused to convert were executed, while women and children were enslaved, trafficked, and subjected to forced labor and sexual violence. The court determined that IS’s actions constituted genocide, aimed at the complete or partial destruction of the Ezidi people.

Lina Ishaq is Guilty

Lina Ishaq was found guilty of keeping Ezidi women and children in captivity at her residence for nearly five months. The court ruled that she treated them as property, subjected them to forced religious conversion, and inflicted physical and psychological abuse.

Among her crimes, she:

• Forced Ezidi captives to practice Islam, recite the Quran, and pray five times daily.

• Prohibited them from practicing their Ezidi faith (Sharfadin), speaking their native language, or expressing their cultural identity.

• Imposed strict movement restrictions and forced them to wear religious attire such as hijabs or niqabs.

• Subjected some victims to physical abuse, verbal insults, and degrading treatment, referring to them as “infidels” and “slaves.”

• Showed them IS propaganda videos of Ezidis being executed and declared that IS intended to kill all “non-believers”.

• Forced them into domestic servitude under conditions akin to slavery.

• Assisted in the sale and transfer of some Ezidi captives to other IS members.

The court found that Ishaq’s actions directly contributed to the continued enslavement and suffering of her victims, including three children who remained in captivity for up to seven years.

Impact on Victim’s lives

The atrocities committed by IS and particularly Lina Ishaq in this case, has caused severe and lasting trauma on the victims.

Many have developed lifelong psychological conditions, and Ezidi children raised in IS captivity lost their language, culture, and religious identity, believing themselves to be Muslims upon release.

The court also acknowledged the broader impact of IS’s crimes, which forced the Ezidi people into exile, with many still living in refugee camps or remaining missing.

Crimes which warranted a 16-year sentence

Lina Ishaq was convicted of genocide for inflicting severe suffering on Ezidi victims and forcibly transferring children to IS’s ideological system. She was also found guilty of crimes against humanity, including enslavement, persecution, and inhumane treatment, as well as severe war crimes for degrading and humiliating treatment of civilians during an armed conflict.

While the court determined that the severity of her crimes warranted a 16-year sentence, it was reduced to 12 years due to a previous conviction. Additionally, under Syrian law, the Ezidi victims were deemed eligible for compensation.

Although the case marks a significant legal precedent in Sweden’s efforts to prosecute individuals involved in IS’s genocide and war crimes, it also shows how ineffective and time-consuming it will be if all states have to prosecute their respective citizens individually.

If there really is an international commitment to hold perpetrators accountable and seek justice for Ezidi survivors, an international tribunal must be set up for the Ezidi genocide. So far, the leading argument against establishing a tribunal has been that it would go against the rule of law to set up a tribunal just to prosecute “one side” (referring to IS). However, this reasoning is absurd since such a tribunal would not be set up to prosecute a specific party of a conflict. Because there has never been any conflict, and the victims have not been a specific entity which would constitute “a side of a conflict.”

IS has not only committed crimes against Ezidis. IS has targeted all minorities in the region, and to view all these different ethnic and religious groups as one part or side of a “conflict/situation” is categorically wrong. The affected victims have, in fact, nothing in common. What does an Ezidi and an Assyrian victim have in common? Did they form an armed force? Did they represent a political group that was fighting against IS? Certainly not. Therefore, the argument that the international community has based its reasoning on for not establishing a tribunal holds no ground and is, in fact, just a way to avoid taking action. This is not only yet another betrayal of the victims, but it is also a witness to how the international community has no interest in justice. The tribunals in Yugoslavia and Rwanda were established just because the powerful states had political interests and therefore strongly pushed for the creation of the tribunals.

Leaving all these judicial and political rules and games aside, what do we tell the victims? What do we tell them when they ask us why we didn’t take action to protect them from IS? Finally, what do we tell them when they ask us today, why we don’t do anything to prosecute all IS members who are scattered around Europe and the Middle East, proudly proclaiming that the Islamic caliphate will return? What do we tell them, and how do we justify that we allow terrorists to walk freely and enjoy life, while all these victims struggle to rebuild their lives to have the life they had before?