Danish Woman Evacuated from Syrian Camps Sentenced for Aiding ISIS

A boy looks out from inside a tent in al-Roj camp, Syria, on January 10, 2020. Reuters
A boy looks out from inside a tent in al-Roj camp, Syria, on January 10, 2020. Reuters
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Danish Woman Evacuated from Syrian Camps Sentenced for Aiding ISIS

A boy looks out from inside a tent in al-Roj camp, Syria, on January 10, 2020. Reuters
A boy looks out from inside a tent in al-Roj camp, Syria, on January 10, 2020. Reuters

A Danish woman evacuated from a Syrian detention camp last year was sentenced on Friday to three years in prison by a Danish court for aiding ISIS militants and illegally travelling to and residing in conflict zones, her lawyer said.

The 35-year-old woman travelled to Syria with her husband in 2013. When trying to escape ISIS’ so-called "caliphate" in 2018 with the help of human traffickers, they were captured by Kurdish forces, who sent her to the al-Roj detention camp in Kurdish-held territory in northeastern Syria due to their association with the terrorist group.

The specifics of her escape was unclear. The woman was separated from her husband during the escape attempt, and it is unclear what happened to him.

Last year the woman - whose name has never been made public - and her five children were evacuated by Danish authorities along with two other women and their nine children. In the same evacuation, Germany also took in eight other mothers and 23 children from Syrian camps.

The woman pleaded guilty to aiding ISIS by working as a housewife and to illegally travelling to and residing in a conflict area, her lawyer told Reuters. The woman accepted the three-year sentence, the lawyer added.



Erdogan Says Türkiye Ready to Help with Ceasefire in Gaza

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan attends the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, November 19, 2024. (Reuters)
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan attends the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, November 19, 2024. (Reuters)
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Erdogan Says Türkiye Ready to Help with Ceasefire in Gaza

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan attends the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, November 19, 2024. (Reuters)
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan attends the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, November 19, 2024. (Reuters)

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday that Türkiye was ready to help in any way possible to establish a lasting ceasefire in Gaza, and expressed satisfaction with the ceasefire agreement that has come into effect in Lebanon.

Türkiye, which has fiercely criticized Israel's offensives in Gaza and Lebanon, has previously said it discussed a potential truce in Gaza with Palestinian armed group Hamas and gave the group recommendations on how to proceed with the negotiations.

On Tuesday, US President Joe Biden said the United States would again push for an elusive ceasefire in the Palestinian enclave of Gaza "with Türkiye, Egypt, Qatar, Israel and others".

"We are stating that, as Türkiye, we are ready to provide any contribution for the massacre in Gaza to end and for a lasting ceasefire to be achieved," Erdogan told members of his ruling AK Party in parliament.

Asked about Biden's remarks, a Turkish official told Reuters a ceasefire in Lebanon without a truce in Gaza was not enough to achieve regional stability, adding Ankara was ready to help reach a deal in Gaza, just as it had supported previous efforts.

"We are again ready to help achieve a permanent ceasefire and a lasting solution in Gaza," the official said.

While Ankara has repeatedly traded insults with Israel since the outbreak of the Gaza war, it has not officially severed ties with it. Unlike Israel and its Western partners, Türkiye does not consider Hamas a terrorist organization and regularly hosts some of its senior members.