- France charges the ex-wife of Daesh official, Sonia M., with crimes against humanity for enslaving a Yazidi girl in Syria.
- denied the allegations, claiming her former husband committed only one rape.
- M.'s lawyer, Nabil Boudi, criticized the charges as "opportunistic accusations."
Le Parisien reported that authorities charged Sonia M., identified as the former wife of the jihadist group’s head of external operations Abdelnasser Benyoucef, on March 14.
According to the report, the Yazidi woman, who was 16 when forced into slavery by Benyoucef, accused Sonia M. of raping her twice and being aware of her husband's actions.
The woman, now 25, stated that she had been held for over a month in 2015 in Syria, where Sonia M. did not allow her to eat, drink, or shower without approval.
In an interview with French investigators on March 14, Sonia M. denied the allegations against her, claiming that her former husband had committed only one rape.
The teenager “left her room freely, ate what she wanted, went to the toilet when she needed to,” she said in her interview.
Sonia M.’s lawyer Nabil Boudi slammed the charges as “opportunistic accusations,” saying that prosecutors were seeking “to make her responsible for the most serious crimes because the courts have not managed to apprehend the real perpetrators.”
A source close to the investigation revealed that authorities have issued an arrest warrant for Benyoucef.
Since 2016, France has been investigating genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes committed against ethnic and religious minorities in Iraq and Syria since 2012.
The probe, led by France’s PNAT anti-terror unit, has concentrated on crimes endured by members of the Yazidi and Christian communities, as well as members of the Sheitat tribe.
“The aim is to document these crimes and identify the French perpetrators who belong to the Islamic State organization,” PNAT told the news.
[embedpost slug="france-warns-of-new-sanctions-against-west-bank-settlers/"]
