An Australian court will hear rare crimes against humanity charges after a Yazidi woman said an Australian-linked ISIS family enslaved her as a child. She has offered to testify against two women repatriated from Syria.

The case could test whether courts can meaningfully prosecute modern slavery committed during conflict years after the abuse occurred. It could also be the country’s first prosecution connected to ISIS’s systematic enslavement of the Yazidi minority, which subjected thousands of women and children to trafficking, forced labor and sexual exploitation.

Survivors describe alleged slavery under ISIS

Australian authorities arrested Kawsar Ahmad and her daughter, Zeinab Ahmad, after they returned from a detention camp in north-eastern Syria earlier this year.

Authorities allege that Kawsar was complicit in the purchase of a female slave for US$10,000 and knowingly kept her in the family home. Zeinab has also been charged with enslavement and use of a slave. Both deny the allegations.

One Yazidi survivor, identified as Kate, told ABC that ISIS abducted her at age 11 before being taken to the Australian-linked family’s home at age 13.

Kate alleges Abu Omar brought her into his house for a trial, where she was subjected to abuse. ABC News reports:

I had to stay with them for three days and if they liked my work, they were going to buy me,…It was very unpleasant. I was their slave and they could do whatever they wanted to me….My life was controlled by them. It felt like my existence did not matter.

Another survivor says the same family enslaved her as a minor, forcing her into domestic work and subjecting her to sexual abuse. She said:

I was a minor, they enslaved me and held me at their place.

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