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full screen Lawyer Mikael Westerlund represents the woman accused of genocide. Archive image. Photo: Claudio Bresciani/TT
The woman accused of holding Yazidi women and children in slave-like conditions in Syria admits that she had people from the ethnic group in her “absolute proximity”.
But she denies that she bought, controlled or sold the people, says her lawyer.
According to the indictment, which concerns genocide, crimes against humanity and serious war crimes, the Swedish woman in her 50s has kept Yazidis in slave-like conditions in her residence in al-Raqqa in Syria, which was then controlled by the extremist movement IS.
But she denies the crime and disputes responsibility, according to the defense.
– Her explanation is, in short, that she has never bought another person, that she has never owned or exercised any control over another person that would entail criminality and that she has never sold another person, says lawyer Mikael Westerlund to TT.
Near the woman
However, the woman admits that during her time in Syria she came into contact with people from the Yazidi ethnic group.
– It is indisputable that in her absolute vicinity for a short period there have been people from the Yazidi minority, but they are not people that she has bought, controlled or sold. It is other people who have committed those crimes, says Westerlund.
– Many interrogations have been held, they have been quite long and detailed, but I feel that the investigators have focused on what she is supposed to have done and what not, there have not been that many questions about alternative perpetrators.
“Not as robust”
Westerlund believes that a large part of the prosecution’s investigation aims to prove whether there has been a genocide or a crime against humanity.
– These are questions the defense will not argue much about, but the prosecutor must bring it into evidence and then we will see if the court finds it substantiated.
– We will focus on the claim about what the woman has done. There, the investigation is not as robust, we can state that there are a few interrogations. It depends on how one evaluates the oral evidence that will determine whether she is convicted or acquitted.
The investigation has been long, so from that aspect the woman thinks it is nice that the prosecution is coming, according to Westerlund.
– She is distressed. She distances herself from this murderous sect IS and does not want to be associated with their atrocities. She feels that it is an unfair description given by her in the investigation and looks forward to being able to nuance the information.
The woman was sentenced in 2022 to six years in prison for taking her twelve-year-old son to Syria and letting him become a child soldier in IS.