A 34-year-old French woman, returning from Syria, was indicted on March 14 for genocide and crimes against humanity, RFI learned this weekend, confirming information from Le Parisien. Sonia M., ex-wife of Abdelnasser Benyoucef, one of the sponsors of the Hyper Cacher attack, is suspected of having reduced into slavery a young woman of the Yazidi faith, this religious minority persecuted by the State Islamic.
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Captured in Iraq in August 2014, Roza* was 16 years old when she was sold by a Saudi emir of the Islamic State organization to Abdelnasser Benyoucef. According to her lawyer Romain Ruiz, the teenager will live for a little over a month with him and Sonia M., in the spring of 2015, in Raqqa, Syria. The man raped her regularly with his wife’s knowledge, reports Roza, heard in February in Erbil in the presence of a French magistrate. Sonia M., who carried a weapon, kidnapped her, exploited her, assaulted her and forbade her from eating or washing without authorization, she denounces.
Sonia M., who is “ a convinced repentant ” And “ actively collaborates with justice », Underlines his lawyer, firmly contests these accusations. “ She knew of only one rape, which she disapproved of. But she herself was under total constraint from her husband, she could not say a word about the way in which she was treated, and therefore even less about the fate of this young girl. », continues Master Boudi, who denounces “ opportunistic accusations “.
“ This young woman never spoke about Sonia among the people who mistreated her before Sonia herself spoke about her situation in court “, he says. Me Ruiz hopes that “ France is giving itself the means to truly do justice » in Roza, not only by holding a trial, but also “ by creating a compensation fund for victims of crimes against humanity ”, which “ allows us to envisage a future “. If a trial is ordered, it would be the first trial of a ghost for crimes against humanity in France.
* His first name has been changed
International reportingTen years after Daesh, the difficult return of the last displaced Iraqis