Facts
According to the conviction, Monika K., aged 19, together with her husband, travelled to Syria and joined ISIS in February 2014.
While her husband was deployed as a fighter in Syria and Iraq, Monika K. reportedly took care of the joint household. The couple received financial support from ISIS on a monthly basis. In the spring of 2015, the couple moved into a house in the Iraqi city of Hit, which was provided free of charge by ISIS. The former legal residents had fled or been displaced by ISIS.
After her first husband died in fighting in 2015, Monika K. successively married two other ISIS fighters. She lived with them in various places under ISIS rule in Iraq and Syria and kept the household, for which she received remuneration from ISIS.
In March 2019, Kurdish forces arrested Monika K. and took her to the al-Hol refugee camp in northern Syria. In the camp, she allegedly ran a donation network for female ISIS members. In December 2019, she was smuggled out of al-Hol by a higher-ranking ISIS member and became his second wife after a religious marriage. The couple moved to Idlib, where Monika K. continued to campaign for financial support for ISIS members, especially regarding their return from refugee camps back to the organization. In addition, she was reportedly available to receive the funds and maintained contacts between fundraisers in Germany and female ISIS members in Syria.
In September 2020, Monika K. was arrested by Turkish forces and remained in Turkish custody until her return to Germany on 11 March 2022.
Procedure
Upon arrival in Germany, she was arrested and placed in custody.
On 9 August 2022, the Federal Public Prosecutor formally indicted Monika K. before the Higher Regional Court in Düsseldorf on the charges of war crimes and membership in a foreign terrorist organization.
On 14 February 2023, the Higher Regional Court in Düsseldorf convicted Monika K. of membership in a terrorist organization abroad and war crimes against property and other rights and sentenced her to a juvenile sentence of three years and six months. The years she spent in Kurdish detention were considered in this sentence. The Court maintained the detention order against the defendant.