The Oslo County Court has convicted two sisters from the Oslo suburb of Bærum to prison, after finding both guilty of taking part in the terrorist organization IS (the Islamic State). They had traveled to Syria when they were 16- and 19 years old, in 2013.
They claimed they only meant to offer humanitarian assistance during the war in Syria, but both ended up marrying IS warriors, having children and supporting IS’ brutal intepretation of Islam. They also are believed to have played an active role in punishing women who objected to IS, also while spending time during a refugee camp after IS was defeated and both of their husbands were killed.
“They have actively committed themselves to ISIL (another name for IS) by traveling to Syria and settling on ISIL’s territory together with people tied to ISIL,” Judge Aina Mee Ertzeid read from the verdict reached after the sister’s seven-week trial last fall. “That something other than a passive membership.”
The judge also noted that the two sisters “chose to enter into marriages with foreign warriors for ISIL. They have allowed themselves to be supported by income that their husbands accepted from ISIL, and also accepted offers of housing, water and fuel from ISIL. They have shown support to a society based on ISIL’s ideology, by taking part in educational programs organized by ISIL.”
Both sisters also had children with their ISIL husbands, one of them two and the other one, both of which have since been placed in foster care after they were all brought back to Norway in 2023. Their mothers were indicted for terrorist activity last year.
Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) reported that the two sisters, who came to Norway as small children with their parents after fleeing Somalia, sat quietly in the courtroom while the verdict was read. Now aged 30 and 27, they were wearing colourful dresses and hijabs as they listened to the judge stress that they also had spoken positively about life in ISIL, and remained members of the ISIL community all the way until ISIL was defeated. They also were found to have promoted ISIL’s way of life, also while interned at the al-Hol refugee camp after ISIL fell.
The older of the two sisters was sentenced to four years in prison and the younger to two years, with one year suspended. That was in line with the state prosecutor’s request, and less than the maximum six-year sentence for taking part in a terrorist organization. They have two weeks to file an appeal.
NewsinEnglish.no staff
