Police suspect al-Hol returnee of three aggravated trafficking offences

Finland’s National Bureau of Investigation suspects a mother who returned from the al-Hol camp of three aggravated human trafficking offences, Yle reports. She allegedly took her three children to Syria in late 2014.

The mother and children were later confined at the al-Hol camp in northeastern Syria. Police suspect she took the minors to conditions that violated human dignity in territory controlled by the Islamic State group. All three children were under 18 when they left; two are now adults.

The family returned to Finland in 2020. The woman, who was born in 1972, is Finnish and lives in the Helsinki metropolitan area.

The National Bureau of Investigation has completed its pre-trial investigation, and the case has been referred to prosecutors in the Western Finland prosecution district for consideration of charges.

In a similar case, prosecutors filed charges in August against a mother suspected of taking two minor children to Islamic State-controlled territory in Syria in 2014. She is accused of two counts of aggravated human trafficking. The woman is a dual Russian-Finnish citizen in her 40s.

A separate investigation into another mother ended in spring 2021. Police found no evidence that a woman who travelled from Lahti to Turkey with her children in 2015 knew in advance they would be taken to Syria, to the Islamic State caliphate.

Aggravated human trafficking carries a prison sentence of between two and 10 years. The offence can be considered aggravated, for example, if violence is used, a serious bodily injury is caused, or the victim is under 18.