Armed tribesmen hold machine guns during an anti-US and anti-Israel gathering mobilizing more fighters, in Sana'a, Yemen, 06 April 2026. Yemen's Houthis have been recruiting more fighters as part of a mobilization campaign in anticipation of a possible confrontation with the United States and Israel amid current regional tensions. The Houthis have launched missile-drone attacks against Israel in support of Iran and its allied groups in the Middle East. EPA/YAHYA ARHAB The woman, identified only as Ayada K., was convicted of the war crime of aiding and abetting the recruitment of a child soldier by allowing a minor to take up arms for Islamic State, the court said in a press release.
She was also convicted of aiding and abetting a terrorist organisation and endangering her minor children.
K. took her teenage son and daughter from the Netherlands to live in Islamic State-held territory in Syria in 2014. Judges say she then let her son join the Islamic State military police at 14. He died two years later while serving in an Islamic State military unit, according to the verdict.
During the trial K. invoked her right to remain silent. After the fall of Islamic State in 2019 she remained in Syria until she was repatriated in 2024 with her remaining children and arrested on arrival.
(Reporting by Stephanie van den Berg; Editing by Hugh Lawson)