An investigating judge and her team on Monday reviewed five direct testimonies that allowed them to argue that ex-jihadist Sammy Djedou subjected three ‘sabaya’ (female captives) to sexual slavery from 1 November 2014 to 31 December 2016, while living in an apartment in Raqqa with his wife and their two children.
Three of the five witnesses were identified victims of Sammy Djedou, including two who had already testified before the Brussels Assize Court.
Witness H. N. A. A. confirmed on Thursday that the Belgian national raped her two to three times a month for two years, from the age of 17 to 19, which was longer than the two other identified victims of the Belgian terrorist.
Sold into slavery, raped, abused ...
According to her statements, Abu Moussab al Belgiki, Sammy Djedou's combatant name, was the second jihadist to have physically and sexually assaulted her. A first jihadist bought her at a market in 2014, after a jihadi offensive on 3 August. She was then sold to al Belgiki, and remained detained in the apartment in Raqqa, even after al Belgiki's probable death on 4 December 2016.
The report of H. N. A. A.'s hearing before the French authorities, conducted in the presence of the investigating judge and several Belgian investigators, is the main piece of evidence in her case.
K. I. K., who was held captive for three months in Djedou's apartment in 2015, along with H. N. A. A., testified in court on Thursday that she was raped by Djedou, physically abused by him and subjected to multiple violent attempts to convert her to Islam. She was then sold by Djedou to another jihadist because she was too recalcitrant in his eyes.
In her case, the Belgian investigators relied mainly on her interview in 2021, conducted by UNITAD, the international investigation team promoting accountability for crimes committed by Daesh (ISIS).
Yazidi pogroms
Sammy Djedou's third victim will be heard by the Assize Court on Wednesday. Investigators said on Monday that they had interviewed her in Duhok, northern Iraq, on 21 June 2023.
In addition to these three identified victims, investigators explained on Monday that they had testimonies from two other Yazidi survivors who were held captive in the same building as Sammy Djedou's direct victims, but by a jihadist other than Abu Moussab al Belgiki.
During their interviews in Iraq in June 2023, these two direct witnesses confirmed to the investigation team that Sammy Djedou had had three slaves. "He didn't beat them, but he raped them," investigators repeated on Monday, quoting one of the two survivors, who were neighbours of the accused.
Born in August 1989 in Etterbeek, Sammy Djedou left Belgium for Syria in October 2012. He was 25 years old when Islamic State supported the sexual enslavement of young Yazidi women within the 'caliphate,' following the offensive against the Yazidi community living in Iraq's Mount Sinjar region on 3 August 2014.
