The indictment will be submitted on Thursday to the Stockholm District Court. The crimes are alleged to have been committed in 2014-2016 in Raqqa, Syria, and are said to have targeted Yazidis, an ancient religious minority in eastern Syria and northwestern Iraq.
"The crimes in this indictment were committed during IS rule in Raqqa, and this is the first time that IS's attacks on the Yazidi minority are being tried in Sweden. It is also the first time that charges of crimes against humanity are being brought in Sweden," says Reena Devgun, senior prosecutor and investigation leader, according to a press release from the Prosecution Authority.
Devgun has previously not wanted to specify which acts are covered by the suspicions, but has said that it does not involve murder.
Crimes against humanity can, for example, consist of rape or torture, carried out as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against a group of civilians. Genocide involves the same type of acts, but with the intention of completely or partially destroying a people group.
IS's abuses against Yazidis are well-documented, and several UN reports have established that the terrorist sect committed genocide against the group.
The woman is currently serving a prison sentence, but was arrested in January this year for the suspicions she is now being charged with.
The 52-year-old, from western Sweden, was sentenced in March 2022 to six years in prison for gross war crimes and gross violations of international law by the Stockholm District Court. This was for taking her then 12-year-old son to Syria and allowing him to become a child soldier in IS. The boy was killed at the age of 16 in Syria.
