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
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.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The National
2 hours ago
- The National
Sweden tries ISIS member over Jordanian pilot burned to death in Syria
A convicted Swedish extremist went on trial in Stockholm on Wednesday accused of war crimes for his role in the 2014 killing of a Jordanian pilot who was burnt alive in Syria. The case is considered unique as the others involved in the brutal killing, which sparked international outrage at the time, are presumed dead, the Swedish prosecutor Henrik Olin said as the trial began. Osama Krayem, a 32-year-old Swede, is already serving long prison sentences for his roles in the Paris and Brussels attacks in 2015 and 2016. He now faces charges of "serious war crimes and terrorist crimes" for his alleged participation in the killing of the Jordanian pilot. On December 24, 2014, an aircraft belonging to the Royal Jordanian Air Force crashed in Syria. Jordan was participating in the US-led coalition's strikes against ISIS positions in Syria. The pilot was captured the same day by fighters from the ISIS group near the central city of Raqqa and he was burnt alive in a cage sometime before February 3, 2015, when a video of the gruesome killing was published, according to the prosecution. The propaganda video was one of the first such videos released by ISIS. "Osama Krayem, together and in agreement with other perpetrators belonging to ISIS, killed Muath Al Kasasbeh," the prosecutor Reena Devgun told the court on Wednesday. "Osama Krayem, in uniform and armed, guarded and led the victim Muath Al Kasasbeh to a metal cage, where the latter was then locked up. One of the co-perpetrators then set fire to Muath Al Kasasbeh, who had no possibility to defend himself or call for help," Mr Devgun said. Mr Krayem, wearing a dark blue shirt and with a thick beard and long, loose dark hair, had his back to the handful of spectators who followed Wednesday's proceedings behind a glass wall in the high-security courtroom in Stockholm's district court. He appeared calm as the prosecution laid out the charges, which could result in a life sentence if he is convicted. In the 22-minute video of the killing, the victim is seen walking past several masked IS fighters, including Mr Krayem, according to prosecutors. The pilot is then seen being locked in the cage and praying as he is set on fire. Prosecutors have been unable to determine the exact date of the murder but the investigation has identified the location. It was thanks to a scar on the suspect's eyebrow, visible in the video and spotted by Belgian police, that Mr Krayem was identified and the investigation was opened, Mr Devgun said when the charges were announced last week. Other evidence in the case includes conversations on social media, including one in which Mr Krayem asks a person if he has seen a new video "where a man gets fried", according to the investigation, a copy of which has been viewed by AFP. The defendant's lawyer, Petra Eklund, told AFP before the start of the trial that her client admitted to being present at the scene but disputed the prosecution's version. "He denies the acts for which he is prosecuted," she said. Mr Krayem, who is from Malmo in southern Sweden, joined ISIS in Syria in 2014 before returning to Europe in September 2015. He was arrested in Belgium in April 2016. In June 2022, he was sentenced to 30 years in prison in France for helping plan the November 2015 Paris attacks in which 130 people were killed. The following year, he was given a life sentence in Belgium for participating in the March 2016 bombings at the main airport in Brussels and on the metro system, in which 32 people were killed. Mr Krayem has been temporarily handed over to Sweden for the Stockholm trial, which is scheduled to last until June 26.
Middle East Eye
3 hours ago
- Middle East Eye
Exclusive: Greece to lobby Egypt against Haftar endorsing Turkey-Libya maritime deal
Greece is expected to ask Egypt to intervene to dissuade the government in eastern Libya backed by General Khalifa Haftar from ratifying a maritime agreement with Turkey, Middle East Eye can reveal. Greek Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis is expected to raise the issue with his Egyptian counterpart Badr Abdelatty on Wednesday, two regional officials with knowledge of the matter told Middle East Eye. Libya's internationally recognised government in Tripoli signed a contentious maritime demarcation agreement with Turkey in 2019 that ignored Greece's claims to exclusive economic zones, including via major Greek islands like Crete and Rhodes. Greece countered that maritime agreement the next year by signing its own deal with Egypt. Haftar-controlled eastern Libya has opposed Turkey's ambitions for years and is backed by Cairo along with the UAE. Any move by eastern Libya to endorse Turkey's position would represent a sea change for the eastern Mediterranean, where regional actors hope to develop potentially lucrative natural gas deposits. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters It would be a major boost for Ankara's bid to assert itself as the dominant maritime power in the region as it would put all of Libya's factions in line with Turkey's claims. If the deal is pursued it could reawaken maritime tensions in the region which saw Greece and Turkey edge close to conflict in the summer of 2020. Greece and Cyprus are already alarmed. But any recognition of Turkey's maritime claims could also irk Israel. Greece, Cyprus and Israel want to develop gas fields in the eastern Mediterranean and build a subsea electrical inter-connector, but those projects have stalled. If Haftar-controlled eastern Libya ratifies the maritime deal, it could provide cover to Syria's new government to strike its own accord with Ankara that includes Northern Cyprus, a breakaway region whose independence is recognised only by Turkey, one of the regional officials told MEE. Saddam Haftar opens dialogue with Turkey Eastern Libya would also find itself in direct confrontation with the Egypt-Greece maritime agreement. Cairo did not recognise all of Greece's claims to exclusive economic zones via its islands in that 2020 agreement, but a wide swath of it contradicts the Turkey-Tripoli deal. The Tobruk-based Libyan House of Representatives in June established a committee to review the deal Tripoli endorsed. Israel's Netanyahu lobbying US against F-35 sale to Turkey, sources say Read More » Just a few years ago, it would have been unthinkable for Haftar-controlled eastern Libya to consider signing a maritime deal with Turkey. The shift represents just how fast the region is reordering itself. In 2019, Haftar launched a months-long offensive to take Tripoli with the backing the UAE, Egypt and Russia. Turkey successfully intervened to defend its ally, sending mercenaries, soldiers and drones. But Khalifa Haftar is now courting Turkish support. In April, his son and potential successor, Saddam, paid a landmark visit to Ankara. Libya's eastern and western governments are jockeying for influence and access to the country's oil riches - the largest in Africa. Greece was able to lean on Egypt in 2020 to counter Turkey because ties between Ankara and Cairo were strained. Libya was just one flashpoint in the relationship. Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi came to power after leading a 2013 military coup, that overthrew Egypt's democratically elected Islamist president, Mohamed Morsi. He was an ally of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. As late as 2019, Erdogan refused to recognise Sisi's legitimacy. However, in recent years Ankara and Cairo have patched up ties. Any effort by Egypt to lobby eastern Libya against the Turkey deal could inflame tensions in the recently thawed relationship.
Al Etihad
4 hours ago
- Al Etihad
China's rare earth export curbs hit Europe's auto industry
4 June 2025 17:42 BERLIN/FRANKFURT (REUTERS)Some European auto parts plants have suspended output and Mercedes-Benz is considering ways to protect against shortages of rare earths, as concerns about the damage from China's restrictions on critical mineral exports decision in April to suspend exports of a wide range of rare earths and related magnets has upended the supply chains central to automakers, aerospace manufacturers, semiconductor companies and military contractors around the move underscores China's dominance of the critical mineral industry, key to the green energy transition, and is seen as leverage by China in its trade war with US President Donald Trump. China produces around 90% of the world's rare trade commissioner Maros Sefcovic said on Wednesday that he and his Chinese counterpart had agreed to clarify the rare earth situation as quickly as possible."We must reduce our dependencies on all countries, particularly on a number of countries like China, on which we are more than 100% dependent," said EU Commissioner for Industrial Strategy Stephane Sejourne."The export (curbs) increase our will to diversify," he said as Brussels identified 13 new projects outside the bloc aimed at increasing supplies of metals and minerals on Wednesday, Mercedes-Benz production chief Joerg Burzer said he was talking to the carmaker's top suppliers about building "buffers" such as rare earth stockpiles to protect against potential threats to supply. Mercedes was currently not affected by the said that part of its supplier network was affected by the shortage but that its own plants were running as auto supplier association CLEPA said several production lines have been shut down after running out of supplies, the latest to warn about the growing threat to manufacturing due to the China's announcement in April coincided with a broader package of retaliation against Washington's tariffs, the measures apply globally and are causing worry among business executives around the and US automakers have complained that the restrictions imposed by China threaten production, following a similar grievance from an Indian EV maker last week. Reliance on China Automakers from General Motors to BMW and major suppliers like ZF and BorgWarner are researching or have developed motors with low- to zero rare earth content in a bid to cut their reliance on China, but few have managed to scale production to bring down has deployed a magnet-free electric motor for its latest generation of electric cars, but still requires rare earths for smaller motors powering components like windshield wipers or car window carmaker Volkswagen said it is not seeing any shortages at the slow pace of easing its critical mineral export controls has become a focus of Trump's criticism of Beijing, which he says has violated the truce reached last month to roll back tariffs and trade has sought to redefine the US' trading relationship with its biggest economic rival by imposing steep tariffs on billions of dollars of imported goods in hopes of narrowing a trade deficit and bringing back lost imposed tariffs as high as 145% against China only to scale them back after a selloff in stock, bond and currency markets over the sweeping nature of the levies. China has responded with its own tariffs and is leveraging its dominance in key supply chains to persuade Trump to back down. Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are expected to talk this week to try to iron out their differences and the export curbs are expected to be high on the agenda.
