Federal prosecutors have charged a German woman with belonging to two foreign terrorist organizations, violating weapons laws, and committing her son as a fighter to a foreign terrorist organization.
Federal prosecutors in Germany said on Tuesday that Stefanie A., whose last name was withheld to protect her privacy, left Germany in 2016 with her son, who was 13 at the time, to live with her husband in Syrian territory controlled by the Islamic State group.
She first joined the terrorist group Jund al-Aqsa, then the ISIS group. She is accused of willingly making her son available as a fighter to the Jund al-Aqsa and ISIS.
The defendant joined ISIS shortly after arriving in Raqqa, Syria, in 2017, initially living with her husband and managing his household. The couple, who had been financially supported by ISIS, made their son available to the group. He finished his military training and was called up for combat operations. According to the prosecutor’s statement, he was killed in a bomb attack in March 2018 when he was 15 years old.
During her time with ISIS, A. was outfitted with an explosive belt and carried a rifle. She and her husband remained loyal to ISIS until the group’s demise, when they surrendered to Kurdish forces in February 2019. When she arrived in Germany in March, she was arrested.