Overview

• Hasna Aarab, a 33-year-old Dutch woman, was convicted by a Dutch court for crimes against humanity, including enslaving a Yazidi woman in Syria between 2015 and 2016.
• The court sentenced Aarab to 10 years in prison, exceeding the prosecution's request for an 8-year term, citing the severity of her actions and their alignment with systemic attacks on the Yazidi community.
• The Yazidi victim, identified as Z., testified about her forced labor, sexual abuse, and separation from her son while living in Aarab's household in ISIS-controlled Raqqa.
• Aarab was also found guilty of joining a terrorist organization, enabling acts of terrorism, and endangering her own child, whom she brought to Syria at age four.
• This landmark case marks the first prosecution in the Netherlands addressing the Islamic State's atrocities against Yazidis, a religious minority targeted for genocide in Iraq and Syria.