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Omaima A. with her second husband Denis Cuspert: Syria was a »mistake«, says A. today
Photo: alaan.tv
Her men fought, she only ran the household and took care of the upbringing of the children.
This is how Omaima A. explains her excursion to the Raqqa ruled by the »Islamic State« (IS), once a stronghold of the terrorist organization.
The State Security Senate of the Hanseatic Higher Regional Court (OLG) did not believe the 36-year-old in the role of the naive warrior wife and sentenced her to a prison sentence of three and a half years in October 2020 because she had actually supported the cruel system of the IS militia in Syria .
This Monday, almost six months after the verdict was pronounced, the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) announced that it had rejected the appeal of the mother of four from Hamburg.
The judgment is then final.
But not only that. A few hours earlier, the Hamburg Public Prosecutor's Office announced that charges were being brought against Omaima A. again: Among other things, she was suspected of having "aided in a crime against humanity in the form of slavery."
No longer a practicing Muslim
In detail, it is about the enslavement of two Yezidi girls who visited Omaima A's apartment in Raqqa and had to clean there.
The Hamburg native supported and maintained the system of slavery established by IS, says Liddy Oechtering, spokeswoman for the public prosecutor's office, SPIEGEL.
The new allegations only arose during the trial last summer.
A Jesidin had been questioned for several days of the trial and had incriminated Omaima A.
She had called her trip to Raqqa a mistake.
In the courtroom she asserted several times that she had finished with IS as well as with the Islamic faith.
She has long ceased to be a practicing Muslim.
The attorney general, however, now has new knowledge that Omaima A. submitted to the hierarchical structures and organizational processes of the IS at the beginning of 2015: In spring 2016, she is said to have left her own apartment - she carried a pistol under her niqab.
During the same period, she is said to have received two visits from Sarah O., who brought her two Yazidi slaves with her.
According to the prosecution, the girls are said to have cleaned for her on instructions from As in the apartment that she shared with Denis Cuspert at the time.
The now deceased and once moderately successful gangsta rapper from Berlin is considered one of the most famous IS fighters.
According to the prosecution, Omaima A. was aware that "with her contribution to the crime she was supporting the slavery system maintained by IS for the purpose of destroying Yezidi culture."
She is also said to have been aware "that the slaves were staying in the apartment against their will and had to expect punishment if they resisted."
Her defense attorney Tarig Elobied told SPIEGEL: “During her interrogation, which lasted several days, the meeting with Ms. A. in Raqqa was linked to an event that Ms. A. was demonstrably no longer in Raqqa.
For me this was proof that witness L. was wrong about Ms. A. "
From the »women's shelter« to the warrior wife
If the court allows the indictment and if there is a conviction, there will be an overall sentence, explains Kai Wantzen, spokesman for the OLG.
The State Security Senate had convicted Omaima A. of membership in a terrorist organization abroad, violation of the duty of care and education, exercising actual violence over war weapons as well as aiding and abetting a crime against humanity (enslavement) and deprivation of liberty.
Since the BGH supports the judgment of the Hamburg judges, a second conviction of Omaima As is considered likely.
The BGH judges are also convinced that Omaima A. traveled to Syria after her first husband, where he completed military training.
At first she lived with the children in an IS "women's shelter", then the family moved into an apartment in Raqqa.
In the opinion of the BGH, there was a specific risk of being injured or killed by air strikes during their entire stay.
As first husband died in fighting in March 2015, in August 2015 she married Denis Cuspert according to the Islamic rite.
For a short period of time "the real control over her husband's assault rifle" was exercised
The BGH is convinced that A. advertised a life in the "caliphate" via social media and email and encouraged like-minded women in Germany to travel to the territory under IS rule.
A. raised her children according to the IS ideology, owned their own pistol and for a short period of time exercised "actual control over her husband's assault rifle".
At the request of an acquaintance, the woman from Hamburg took her "slave", a 13-year-old Yezidi girl enslaved by IS in the Sinjar region as spoils of war, in her apartment for several hours to take care of her.
The court's decision on whether the new charges against Omaima A. will admit it is expected in a few weeks.
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