COPENHAGEN, Denmark – A judge in the Copenhagen City Court has approved the confiscation of a 22-year-old Kurdish woman Joanna Palani’s passport and the travel ban against her after she returned to Denmark from the Kurdish areas in Iraq and Syria, where she fought alongside Kurdish forces against the Islamic State. Palani - a Kurd from Iran who came to Denmark as a refugee at the age of three - dropped out of college in Denmark last fall to join the YPJ, the women’s branch of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) in Syria. She later claimed she fought with the Peshmerga of the Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraq against ISIS. Upon her return to Denmark she openly expressed her intention to return to the conflict zone. According to judge Karen Duus Mathiesen’s ruling Thursday, the Kurdish woman ”poses a threat to national security,” if she leaves Denmark again. "The court is now convinced that there are reasons to believe that Joanna Palani still wants to go to an area of conflict abroad in order to participate in activities including armed fighting which continues to develop her skills to commit serious offenses when she returns to Denmark from the conflict zone," Mathiesen stated in a press release. It is the first time that a court in Europe makes a decision on police confiscation of a passport in an ISIS case. A new Danish Passport Law that came into effect last March gives police the right to seize passports and impose travel bans on Danish citizens suspected of planning to travel to Syria or Iraq to fight. Palani’s lawyer, Thorkild Hoyer, told Rudaw that they would appeal the ruling to the High Court. "I am deeply disappointed that the judge has misunderstood the meaning of the new Danish Passport Law. The law is aimed at people who pose a threat to national security, other nations' security or public order,” Hoyer said. “It is especially targeted at people who endorse IS or similar groups. Joanna is in no way threatening Denmark's security,” Hoyer added. The case against Palani is worrying other Kurds in Denmark. Shaho Pirani, 32, who has MAs in anthropology and political science, recently returned to Denmark from the Kurdistan Region, where he received weapons training at a training camp and became a Peshmerga. Now he fears for the future of other Danish-Kurdish fighters. "I am afraid that the Passport Law will be interpreted in many different ways and used arbitrarily against us," Pirani told Rudaw, condemning the case. “It is ridiculous that legislators in Denmark prosecute people who fight against people who behead children and women.” Most Danish politicians thought the court’s ruling must be respected. However, one openly criticized the case. The Social Democrat member of Danish Parliament, Lars Aslan Rasmussen, who has a Kurdish father, told Rudaw: “I think it's very unfair that she is punished by the Danish government for actually fighting on the same side as Denmark against ISIS.” “In addition, it is remarkable that over hundred Danish Syrian Islamist warriors who fight against the Kurds and the West have not been charged, while Palani is punished,” Rasmussen added. Denmark is part of the international effort to arm Iraqi Kurdish forces in the fight against Islamist extremists. It has sent a 55-person military team as well as emergency aid and weapons to help the Peshmerga. The Scandinavian country is also helping with US-led airstrikes against ISIS in Iraq. According to the Danish Security and Intelligence Service (PET), around 125 Danes are fighting in Syria and Iraq, often with ISIS. Of these, approximately 20 Danish Kurds have claimed to fight against ISIS. Also some Danish Kurds fight with ISIS, of whom one has been arrested. Though many countries have looked the other way on citizens and residents traveling abroad to fight ISIS, Palani is not the first European Kurd to be targeted for doing so. Shilan Ozcelik, a British woman of Kurdish descent, was arrested last year at London’s Stansted Airport. Her supporters say she travelled to Brussels in an attempt to try to join the YPG or YPJ. She was arrested on January 16, 2015 as she returned from Brussels. Last month a 47-year-old Dutch man and former soldier identified as J.A. appeared in a Rotterdam court for allegedly killing militants of ISIS while fighting with YPG in Syria.
