German woman arrested and accused of fighting for the Islamic State terrorist group in Syria

A German woman accused of taking her son to Islamic State-controlled territory in Syria and fighting for the extremist group there was arrested Wednesday after landing in Berlin.

The woman, identified only as Stefanie A. in line with German privacy rules, traveled to Syria in 2016 to join her husband, federal prosecutors said in a statement. He had left Germany the previous year and was fighting for IS, they added.

Prosecutors said that the suspect joined IS after her arrival and, together with her husband, decided to have her son – aged under 15 at the time – get firearms training at a training camp run by the group. Her son was used in military operations and she also at some point became an IS fighter, they said.

The son was killed in an air raid in March 2018, according to the statement. Stefanie A. and her husband were later arrested.

She is suspected of membership in a foreign terrorist organization, violating her duty of care and a war crime, prosecutors said.

Source: Daily Mail