© 2025 ICCT
Last update: 2 May 2025Case No:7 StS 3/19 - 1st Inst. Verdict – Final
In 2013, German national Sarah O. travelled to Syria where she married an ISIS fighter. From 2015 until December 2017 she and her husband were enslaving Yazidi women and girls. Over the course of two years, they held seven women, one of them, a 14-year old girl, died in captivity during an attack. Sarah O. regularly subjected the women to beatings, forced them to slave labour, and “prepared them” for her husband, who raped them. In 2018, she fled to Turkey where she was detained on 23 February. On 21 September of the same year, she was deported to Germany and arrested. On 16 June 2021, following criminal proceedings pursuant to juvenile justice, Sarah O. was convicted of crimes against humanity, membership in a foreign terrorist organisation, and several domestic charges. She was sentenced to 6 years and 6 months imprisonment.
2 counts of war crime of pillaging;
3 counts of membership in a terrorist organisation
3 counts of human trafficking; 3 counts of severe deprivation of liberty
1st Instance:
1 count of crimes against humanity of enslavement resulting in death, 1 count of crimes against humanity of persecution; 1 count of aiding and abetting crimes against humanity of rape
2 counts of membership in a foreign terrorist organisation
1 count of severe deprivation of liberty; 1 count of deprivation of liberty resulting in death; 1 count of bodily assault
Nationality:
Gender:
Case status: 1st Inst. Verdict – Final
Verdict status: Partial Acquittal
Affiliated group: ISIS
Travelled to conflict zone: Yes
Special procedure: Juvenile Justice
Ground of jurisdiction: Active Personality
Indictment – Press Release
1st Instance Verdict – Full Judgment
© 2025 ICCT
Last update: 2 May 2025