A woman who kept prisoners captured by ISIS as “slaves” during the civil war in Syria has been jailed for 12 years in a war crimes trial in Sweden.
Lina Ishaq, 52, kept Yazidi women and children as captives at her home after ISIS had attacked their villages and executed their male relatives, a court in Stockholm found. It said she forced them to practise as Muslims and subjected them to “various forms of abuse” while referring to them as “infidels” and “slaves”.
Judges said Ishaq, a Swedish citizen, shared ISIS's desire to persecute the Yazidis and “had a strong ideological intent to destroy a religious group”. Extradited from Turkey in 2021, her conviction is the first in Sweden relating to the ISIS assault on the Yazidis in Iraq and Syria between 2014 and 2016, which has been widely labelled a campaign of genocide.
Nine people enslaved by Ishaq “were subjected by the convicted woman to serious mental harm which will affect them for the rest of their lives”, the Stockholm District Court said. Seven were children, and three were not freed for several years after others had escaped with the help of smugglers. One remains missing.
The victims were captured during co-ordinated ISIS attacks in northern Iraq in the summer of 2014, in which the militants carried out executions and assaults in what the Swedish court called a “systematic attack” on Yazidi civilians. It is believed the captives were transported between ISIS holding sites in Iraq and Syria for several months before they came to Ishaq's home in Raqqa, the extremist group's former capital in Syria.
At her home she “kept them imprisoned and treated them as her property by holding them as slaves”, the court announced in its verdict on Tuesday, in which Ishaq was convicted of involvement in genocide, crimes against humanity and gross war crimes.
It said that while imprisoned they were “forced to become practising Muslims” by reciting the Quran, praying five times a day, wearing religious dress and being forbidden from speaking Kurmanji, a dialect of Kurdish. Their captor is said to have declared that ISIS “will kill all the infidels” while showing them propaganda films in which Yazidis were executed by members of ISIS.
At Ishaq's home the prisoners were also treated in a “slave-like way” by being forced to perform domestic chores, were “severely restricted” in their freedom to move about and received limited food and supplies, the court ruled. It said Ishaq “assaulted and molested some of the injured parties and referred to all of them using demeaning invectives such as 'infidels' or 'slaves'".
After five months Ishaq is said to have assisted in the “onward transfer” of most of the captives, which involved having their photographs taken. Judges reasoned that her actions were “part of a pattern of acts committed by ISIS and ISIS adherents against the Yazidi civilian population, which taken together constitute a widespread and systematic attack against civilians”. The militants lost control of Raqqa in 2017.
“The crimes do not only constitute an exceptionally serious violation of the life and integrity of specific individuals, but also of fundamental human values and humanity,” the court said. “To exercise the powers attaching to right of ownership over another human being is a tremendous violation of the integrity of that person, as it deprives the person of their human dignity.”
The court's decision also “stresses that the comprehensive system of enslavement of the Yazidi population implemented by ISIS was one of the crucial elements in the perpetration of the genocide, the crimes against humanity and gross war crimes that the Yazidi population was subjected to”. The case was the first ever trial for crimes against humanity in a Swedish court.
About 300 Swedes or Swedish residents, a quarter of them women, joined IS in Syria and Iraq, mostly in 2013 and 2014, according to Sweden's intelligence service Sapo. Many European countries claim a “universal jurisdiction” to prosecute grave crimes that occurred outside their territory, such as ISIS war crimes allegations that have been heard in Germany.
The charges in the Swedish war crimes case were brought last September. Prosecutor Reena Devgun said at the time the victims suffered “such severe mental harm that it constitutes genocide”. She said forcing Yazidi children to be brought up as Muslims was also an act of genocide.
The offences at trial were just “part of the systematic abuse and offences these women and children were subjected too during their time in ISIS captivity”, she said. “ISIS sought to destroy the Yazidi people on an industrial scale.”
Ishaq was already serving a six-year sentence handed down in 2022 for allowing her 12-year-old son to be recruited as a child soldier for ISIS. Her sentence in the war crimes trial was assessed at 16 years but reduced to 12 because of the time already served. The victims were awarded 150,000 Swedish crowns ($13,700) each in damages.
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Ten tax points to be aware of in 2026
1. Domestic VAT refund amendments: request your refund within five years
If a business does not apply for the refund on time, they lose their credit.
2. E-invoicing in the UAE
Businesses should continue preparing for the implementation of e-invoicing in the UAE, with 2026 a preparation and transition period ahead of phased mandatory adoption.
3. More tax audits
Tax authorities are increasingly using data already available across multiple filings to identify audit risks.
4. More beneficial VAT and excise tax penalty regime
Tax disputes are expected to become more frequent and more structured, with clearer administrative objection and appeal processes. The UAE has adopted a new penalty regime for VAT and excise disputes, which now mirrors the penalty regime for corporate tax.
5. Greater emphasis on statutory audit
There is a greater need for the accuracy of financial statements. The International Financial Reporting Standards standards need to be strictly adhered to and, as a result, the quality of the audits will need to increase.
6. Further transfer pricing enforcement
Transfer pricing enforcement, which refers to the practice of establishing prices for internal transactions between related entities, is expected to broaden in scope. The UAE will shortly open the possibility to negotiate advance pricing agreements, or essentially rulings for transfer pricing purposes.
7. Limited time periods for audits
Recent amendments also introduce a default five-year limitation period for tax audits and assessments, subject to specific statutory exceptions. While the standard audit and assessment period is five years, this may be extended to up to 15 years in cases involving fraud or tax evasion.
8. Pillar 2 implementation
Many multinational groups will begin to feel the practical effect of the Domestic Minimum Top-Up Tax (DMTT), the UAE's implementation of the OECD’s global minimum tax under Pillar 2. While the rules apply for financial years starting on or after January 1, 2025, it is 2026 that marks the transition to an operational phase.
9. Reduced compliance obligations for imported goods and services
Businesses that apply the reverse-charge mechanism for VAT purposes in the UAE may benefit from reduced compliance obligations.
10. Substance and CbC reporting focus
Tax authorities are expected to continue strengthening the enforcement of economic substance and Country-by-Country (CbC) reporting frameworks. In the UAE, these regimes are increasingly being used as risk-assessment tools, providing tax authorities with a comprehensive view of multinational groups’ global footprints and enabling them to assess whether profits are aligned with real economic activity.
Contributed by Thomas Vanhee and Hend Rashwan, Aurifer
'Worse than a prison sentence'
Marie Byrne, a counsellor who volunteers at the UAE government's mental health crisis helpline, said the ordeal the crew had been through would take time to overcome.
“It was worse than a prison sentence, where at least someone can deal with a set amount of time incarcerated," she said.
“They were living in perpetual mystery as to how their futures would pan out, and what that would be.
“Because of coronavirus, the world is very different now to the one they left, that will also have an impact.
“It will not fully register until they are on dry land. Some have not seen their young children grow up while others will have to rebuild relationships.
“It will be a challenge mentally, and to find other work to support their families as they have been out of circulation for so long. Hopefully they will get the care they need when they get home.”
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Sri Lanka World Cup squad
Dimuth Karunaratne (c), Lasith Malinga, Angelo Mathews, Thisara Perera, Kusal Perera, Dhananjaya de Silva, Kusal Mendis, Isuru Udana, Milinda Siriwardana, Avishka Fernando, Jeevan Mendis, Lahiru Thirimanne, Jeffrey Vandersay, Nuwan Pradeep, Suranga Lakmal.
Yemen's Bahais and the charges they often face
The Baha'i faith was made known in Yemen in the 19th century, first introduced by an Iranian man named Ali Muhammad Al Shirazi, considered the Herald of the Baha'i faith in 1844.
The Baha'i faith has had a growing number of followers in recent years despite persecution in Yemen and Iran.
Today, some 2,000 Baha'is reside in Yemen, according to Insaf.
"The 24 defendants represented by the House of Justice, which has intelligence outfits from the uS and the UK working to carry out an espionage scheme in Yemen under the guise of religion.. aimed to impant and found the Bahai sect on Yemeni soil by bringing foreign Bahais from abroad and homing them in Yemen," the charge sheet said.
Baha'Ullah, the founder of the Bahai faith, was exiled by the Ottoman Empire in 1868 from Iran to what is now Israel. Now, the Bahai faith's highest governing body, known as the Universal House of Justice, is based in the Israeli city of Haifa, which the Bahais turn towards during prayer.
The Houthis cite this as collective "evidence" of Bahai "links" to Israel - which the Houthis consider their enemy.
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