Mother on trial in Austria after repatriation from Syrian detention camp

Woman faces a decade in prison if found guilty of being a member of ISIS

Women walk past a fence at the al-Hol camp in Syria's northeastern Al-Hasakah Governorate, the largest of two in northeastern Syria holding the families of ISIS fighters. AFP

An Austrian woman who spent almost eight years in a detention camp in Syria with her son, before both were repatriated, went on trial in Vienna on Wednesday.

Evelyn T, who is accused of having been a member of a terrorist group from 2015 to 2017, could face up to 10 years in prison if convicted.

She left Austria for Syria's then ISIS-controlled area in 2016 to join her husband, “supporting him psychologically and taking care of the household”, according to the charges.

Evelyn T has been in detention since returning to Austria last month with her son, seven, who was place in social services' custody.

The son was born in 2017. The couple surrendered later that year, with Evelyn T and her son ending up in a Kurdish-run detention camp.

On Wednesday, the 26-year-old was expected to plead guilty in court to the charges of being part of a terrorist group and a criminal organisation, according to her lawyer Anna Mair, in the first such case in the country.

“She takes responsibility for what she has done … and she wants to lead a normal life in the future,” Ms Mair said ahead of the trial's opening.

Since ISIS was ousted from its self-declared “caliphate” in 2019, the return of family members of fighters who were either captured or killed has been a thorny issue for European countries.

Evelyn T was repatriated together with another woman, Maria G, and her two sons. Maria G, now 28, left Austria in 2017 to join ISIS in Syria. She has remained free since her return, while an investigation takes place.

Last year, a Vienna court ordered that she and her sons be repatriated, stressing that it was “in the children's greater interest”.

Austria's Foreign Ministry had previously rejected her request to be repatriated, saying that only the children would be accepted. The EU member previously repatriated several children.

Belgium, France, Germany and the Netherlands are among other countries that have repatriated relatives of militant group fighters.