Jihad trial opens in Düsseldorf

Karolina R. did not wish to state her name or respond to the charges. Neither did her two co-accused, Ahmed-Sadiq M. and Jennifer M. Karolina, a 25-year-old Polish German, didn't want to show her face, either - at least, not to the cameras. She arrived for the start of the trial fully veiled, but once the cameras had left the courtroom she was content just to wear a headscarf.

The three defendants, all of whom are from Bonn, are accused of supporting the terrorist militia known as Islamic State. Their trial is taking place in the well-protected high security wing of the higher regional court in Dusseldorf. Initially set to last 25 days, it will examine the accusations made by the investigating public prosecutor. Karolina R. is accused of supplying Islamic State with a total of around 11,000 euros and cameras for making propaganda videos.

Both of these constitute statutory criminal offenses, according to Simon Henrichs, a public prosecutor at Germany's Federal Supreme Court. "Firstly, supporting a terrorist organization abroad; secondly, the preparation of a serious act of violence that constitutes a danger to the state," he explains. "According to our interpretation of the law, both these criminal offenses coincide with the payments." It's clear to Henrichs that you "can do a great deal" with 11,000 euros, especially in Syria, which is why this is a "very significant charge."

Imprisoned with her son

Karolina R. has already spent around 10 months in detention awaiting trial, along with her son, who is now two years old. As a result she's already become a kind of martyr for the Islamist scene. A Facebook page calling on people to support her has received almost 2,500 "likes."

Karolina R. is accused of sending the money to her then husband, Fared S. According to information obtained by the public prosecutor, Fared S. left Germany for Syria in mid-2013 to join one of the many militias there that were supposedly waging jihad. Karolina R. is also said to have traveled to Syria on one occasion with her son. Fared S. apparently joined the group calling itself Islamic State only later on, and was held captive for a short time by the Free Syrian Army, a group generally regarded as moderate. He is said to have contacted his wife by phone after he was released in 2014. According to the indictment, he wanted "more money for new equipment for himself and his brothers."

Ex-husband in video of atrocity

In the summer of 2014 Fared S. - now with a new name, Abu Luqmaan - achieved grim notoriety in an IS propaganda video. Karolina R.'s ex-husband is seen posing amid piles of corpses, shouting enthusiastically: "As you can see, we've been slaughtering people." Ex-rapper Denis Cuspert from Berlin is also in the video: He's one of Islamic State's most important propagandists.

Bernhard Falk stresses that by the time this video was made Karolina R. had already been in custody for some time. Falk, a former leftist terrorist, has been active in the Islamist scene for years, particularly in prisoner support. He is sitting in on the Dusseldorf trial as well, to provide moral support to the accused. On his Facebook page he calls for "solidarity with the two sisters and the brother in the dock."

From Catholic to devout Muslim

Karolina R. was radicalized while she was still at secondary school in Bonn. Her former head master told the local newspaper, the Bonn newspaper Generalanzeiger, that Karolina suddenly showed up to class in a full veil. For her A-levels exams, however, school staff had to ask her to show her face, he said. After all, they had to know who was taking the tests. However, according to the school principal, contrary to some of her male counterparts, Karolina R. did not try to proselytize her fellow classmates.

The proceedings are being presided over by the judge Barbara Havliza, who presided over terrorism proceedings in Dusseldorf since 2012. Havliza was not bothered by an application made by the six lawyers representing the three defendants about what they called "excessive security measures" outside the courthouse. The lawyers said such tight security would jeopardize public access to the trial and discourage potential observers. The 20 or so journalists attending Wednesday's proceedings were nevertheless not put off by the police officers' machine guns.