No. 47/2023
By decision of July 7, 2023 the 5th Senate for Criminal Matters (State Security Senate [Staatsschutzsenat]) of the Higher Regional Court (OLG) Frankfurt/Main admitted the indictment filed by the Frankfurt/Main Public Prosecutor's Office dated March 7, 2023 against 38-year-old Nadja R. for membership in a foreign terrorist organization and war crimes against property and thus opened the main proceedings.
According to the indictment by the Public Prosecutor’s Office, the defendant is accused to have traveled from Germany to Syria in the summer of 2014 and to have joined the terrorist organization "Islamic State" ("IS") there. Shortly after her arrival in Syria, she allegedly married the separately prosecuted Cem K. according to Islamic rituals. Henceforth, the defendant allegedly led a marriage at the side of Cem K. according to the “IS” model of marriage in the territories occupied by “IS”. In particular, the defendant allegedly took over all household tasks in order to enable her husband to participate in combat operations and subsequently to work in an "IS" telecommunications office.
In August 2014, the defendant allegedly posted a message on her Facebook page to women who were willing to get married and offered them her support in leaving Germany or Europe for the territory of the "IS".
In the "IS" territory, the couple allegedly occupied from May 2015 to January 2017, one after the other, two lodgings assigned to them by the organization in the city of Tal Afar/Iraq, whose legal residents had fled from the approaching "IS" troops.
In June 2017, the defendant was detained by units of the Kurdish People's Defense and taken to a prison camp. From there she was returned to Germany on October 5, 2022, and arrested upon arrival at Frankfurt Airport on October 6, 2022. She has been continuously in pre-trial detention since then. The Senate has ordered the continuation of pre-trial detention.
The main trial will begin on September 8, 2023, at 10:00 a.m. in Room II of Court Building E, Hammelsgasse 1, Frankfurt am Main, and will be continued on October 2, 2023, as well as on October 11, 18, and 20, 2023, and on November 1, 8, 10, and 15, 2023, starting each day on at 10:00 a.m.
Higher Regional Court Frankfurt/Main, decision of July 7, 2023, 5 St 1/23
English version: dep. press spokeswoman Dr. Kerstin Wierse