Repatriated Islamic State woman reconsidered her decision and will no longer oppose conviction

One of the two sisters affiliated with the Islamic State who said they would appeal their prison sentences after their repatriation to Belgium will no longer oppose her conviction.

The woman, identified as 24-year-old Fatima B. was brought back to Belgium from Syria alongside her sister, 31-year-old Rahma B., and both said they were going to appeal their 5-year prison sentences, delivered in absentia.

Fatima’s lawyer said his client had reconsidered her decision and was willing to accept her punishment, recognising she had a “debt” to pay, Het Nieuwsblad reports.

“After studying her criminal file, Fatima decided to give up her resistance,” her lawyer said, adding: “She wants to accept her condemnation and wants to undergo her punishment — she realizes she has a debt to our society.”

Both sisters went to Syria between 2013 and 2014, presumably following their husbands, who fought with the terrorist group in Syria.

In the chaos resulting from the Turkish incursion into Syria at the start of October, both sisters fled a detention camp and entered Turkey before being sent to Belgium by Turkish authorities, who refused to host foreign terrorist fighters.

Fatima’s sister, Rahma, will uphold her appeal before the court, with her lawyer saying that it was not because she meant to “escape her responsibilities” but because she wished to “explain her story to the court.”

Source: Brussels Times