SULAIMANI, Iraqi Kurdistan – Kajal Zuber Ismael, 21, sits in a Sualimani prison, reflecting on her short life as a convicted accessory to kidnapping, and as the daughter and wife of insurgent leaders.

Kajal is the wife of Qadir Namiq, the head of a cell in Sulaimani that abducted several people including the son of a wealthy man. According to Sulaimani security officials, Kajal and her husband used false identities to enter and settle in the city.

Kajal is also the daughter of an Ansar al-Islam senior leader, a Kurdish insurgent group that has been accused of maintaining close ties with Al-Qaeda. Largely driven out of Iraqi Kurdistan by joint US-Kurdish military operations in the spring of 2003, Ansar al-Islam was involved in numerous acts of violence in Iraqi Kurdistan and the rest of Iraq.

“I knew about all the crimes but because of my children and lest their life is destroyed, I could not reveal anything,” Kajal said.

Kajal married Namiq seven years ago and has three children. They lived in Kirkuk but moved to Sulaimani in 2009. She has now been sentenced to life imprisonment for accessory to kidnapping.

Speaking to Rudaw from prison, Kajal said her husband used to be a car dealer but became a kidnapper.

“They first built a basement in the house. My husband told me what they were going to use the basement for but I didn’t dare to reveal it out of fear of my children and their lives,” Kajal told Rudaw. “They abducted people and held them in the basement.”

Speakign about the abduction of Mohammed Choysa, the son of a prominent wealthy family in Sulaimani, Kajal said she opened the door for her husband and other members of the team when they brought Choysa home to put him in the basement.

According to a source familiar with the investigations in the case, Kajal’s husband was recruited to Ansar al-Islam through Atila Tahsin Fahd, a resident of Kirkuk.

Two of Fahd’s brothers were killed in Kirkuk during “terrorist” activities, said the source. When Namiq moved to Sulaimani, Fahd gave him the identity card of one of his deceased brothers and made a fake ID card for Kajal as well under the name Nasrin Zuber Ahmed.

Kajal’s father, Mullah Zuber Ismael, was a member of Ansar al-Islam and played a role in exhuming the bodies of the respected religious leaders, known as sheikh, in Hawraman area in 2002. Hawraman is located in the eastern part of Sulaimani province close to the border with Iran and was an Ansar al-Islam stronghold until they were driven out of the area in joint operations by US troops and Kurdish Pehsmarga forces.

Namiq said in a confession that the group was apparently first organized by Kajal’s father, Mullah Zuber. The group owned two houses in different neighborhoods of Sulaimani and one was used for holding the people they abducted.

Namiq and his group had asked Sheikh Tahir to pay a ransom of US$1.5 million initially but later brought down the amount to $500,000. Although they received the money, they still killed Mohammed.

Namiq said the group had plans to assassinate political figures and blame other groups through online statements “in order to destroy the relationship between political parties.”

Kajal maintains she did not understand the consequences of her actions.

“The court shouldn’t have handed out the sentences it did. I hid the activities just so that my children’s lives would not be destroyed,” said Kajal.

Following the arrest of Kajal and Namiq, her father’s family is believed to have departed Kirkuk from Mosul, a volatile province and stronghold of the insurgency.

Choysa was abducted in April 2010 in Sulaimani and killed in Kirkuk 10 days after his disappearance.

Kajal said when Mohammed was taken out of her home’s basement by the abductors, she thought they were going to release him only to find out later that he was being taken out to be killed.

After Choysa was killed, Kajal briefly evaded authorities by moving to the home of a friend of Namiq. But when they moved back to their home, Kurdish security forces raided the house. Namiq was injured and arrested along with his wife.

Twelve individuals suspected of connections with the group were detained. Three of them have been sentenced to death for killing Choysa and five have been set free by the court. The rest are still being investigated.

Kajal, her husband and another member of the group were sentenced under the anti-terror law.

Kajal has been handed three life imprisonment sentences for her involvement in abductions. Among the people they planned to abduct was Haji Mohammed Bamoki, a wealthy businessman in Sulaimani.

Colonel Hassan Nuri, Sulaimani’s chief of security, disputes Kajal’s claims she didn’t understand her involvement in the crimes.

“They were all terrorists and have been found guilty by the court. Kajal isn’t telling the truth when she says she wasn’t aware of what was going on. She was involved in all the terrorist acts of that group,” Nuri told Rudaw.

Sheikh Tahir Choysa, Mohammed’s father, said he was satisfied with the arrest and conviction of those who killed his son but said the other detainees shouldn’t have been released “because they are terrorists.”

Although the Kurdistan Region’s Cassation Court has ordered that they be held, a Sulaimani court has set them free without heeding the call of the superior court, Sheikh Tahir told Rudaw.