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Trial at the OLG Frankfurt against Laura H. (2023)

From May 15, 2023, to July 17, 2023, the 5th Criminal Division, the State Security Senate, of the Higher Regional Court (OLG) Frankfurt am Main conducted the trial against Laura H.

The defendant was accused of having traveled to Syria in spring 2016 together with her two sons (born 2012 and 2013) and joining the terrorist organization “Islamic State” (“IS”) there. While with the “IS,” the defendant reportedly reunited with Ahmed D., whom she had married according to Islamic rites. Ahmed D. had already traveled to Syria in autumn 2014 and become a member of the “IS.” The defendant is said to have managed the household for Ahmed D., thereby enabling him to act as an “IS” fighter. Furthermore, the defendant attended a course on the doctrine (“Aqida”) of the “IS,” participated in an “IS” informational event, and according to the organization’s guidelines, nearly daily sold homemade cakes and desserts in a supermarket and other stores.

After Ahmed D. was killed in a bomb attack on May 10, 2017, and following the birth of her daughter in 2017, the defendant reportedly married another “IS” fighter according to Islamic rites and also managed his household. Additionally, she sold snacks, drinks, and desserts at markets operated by the “IS.”

The defendant was also accused of organizing, together with Ahmed D. and others, the transfer of €27,220 from Germany to Syria in March 2017, which allegedly served the purposes of the “IS.”

The indictment also included a charge of neglect of care duties towards her sons, as the defendant knowingly brought them into Syria amid the ongoing civil war. The children were thus exposed to war-related dangers, particularly bombings. The children witnessed the killing of their father in the bomb attack on May 10, 2017, and escaped unharmed only by chance.

At the end of 2018, the defendant was taken into custody by Kurdish militias and subsequently transferred to the Al Hawl refugee camp near the Syrian-Iraqi border in northern Syria, operated by the autonomous Kurdish self-administration. On November 23, 2019, she was repatriated to Germany with her children as part of a retrieval operation organized and coordinated by the German Foreign Office.

The defendant was not held in pre-trial detention.

On July 17, 2023, the 5th Criminal Division found Laura H. guilty.

The Higher Regional Court Frankfurt am Main convicted the 33-year-old Laura H. of membership in a terrorist organization abroad in three cases, one of which was concurrent with a violation of a provisioning ban (§ 18 (1) AWG), and another concurrent with neglect of care and upbringing duties. She was sentenced to a total prison term of two years. The court suspended the enforcement of this sentence on probation.

The court considered as mitigating factors the defendant’s full confession and expression of remorse. Furthermore, she had renounced the “IS” while in the Kurdish detention camp under life-threatening conditions. Her subsequent integration in Germany with her children also contributed to mitigation. It was also considered significantly mitigating that the offenses took place four and a half years prior.

The defendant waived the right to appeal.

The trial was continuously observed by the Trial Monitoring observers.
Weekly reports will be published.