Transcripts For DW DocFilm 20240713

Hi dad its me theres no future press here i dont have one single dollar. If there is a smuggler who got 10 women out of here yesterday without any problems. But. It shatters any illusions you might. Your own child would rather go join the terrorists than stay with you. And even think its cool for the quick sex i meant i was young i guess and wanted a bit of revolution islam was sort of in. This film tells the story of a father i accompanied over a period of 4 years and his daughter. For all of this is pretty its clear to us that shes not only some little girl who was groomed to have allowed it unfold around her was naive and effects on the results of the perpetrator and. The story of 2 vastly different worlds. It was to get out of there as quickly as you can go. A story of life and death. Is sad im waiting please dad please. In march 2015 mike messings world was turned upside down his daughter had suddenly disappeared without a trace he then started receiving messages on his phone from a stranger. Job was a miter what i couldnt understand what he was telling me of all claw but when i saw that tiny Profile Photo of him and clicked on it it looked horrible as all your. Concerned then saw that flag is in that was like final level. His daughter leonora was 15 years old at the time her parents had separated some years earlier mike who runs a bakery in a small town in eastern germany had recently remarried was that the reason for leonoras disappearance had she felt like a 3rd wheel mike didnt know. To those around her she had seemed like a typical teenager interested in boys and Beauty Products desperate for clues to help make sense of it all mike searched leonoras room he found her diary and was confronted with a parallel existence one dominated by islam and in which his daughter was wearing a headscarf. He found photos on her computer which showed her hidden transformation. Mike hadnt noticed a finger and blamed himself. With this you keep coming back to yourself and ask why for what process or for why more for for what is or. Young girls in germany have been systematically recruited by a supporters are searching social media for potential targets event after girls are often married off while theyre still minus and push to produce new fighters if they fall out of favor they become slaves so why are girls and young women from across europe choosing to go and live in this darkness had seen for an agonizing 12 days mike heard nothing from leonora then finally he received a voice message little did the father know that soon he would be keeping his phone by his side at all times it would become the sole source of contact with his daughter. Hi dad im trying to send you a voice memo that reaches you quickly and again im doing really well we have a really big apartment here. That is that is decorated everything in purple of course we have you know we dont have couches here but these pillows you sit on. Im also sending you photos of the president he gave me gold. Leonora was talking about how wedding aged just 15 she married an Islamic State fighter this is the official wedding photo. She was one of the mans 3 wives mikes layo was now living in another world in syria in the midst of a civil war. The previous world had been biking by a village of 200 people in the hearts mountains region of eastern germany. At this point mike approached me. Im a journalist and already had years of on the ground experience covering is. And had been to syria and iraq often we immediately had a good report but at that 1st meeting in 2015 we had little idea of how often we would speak and meet over the next years and every time we met one big question loomed why i didnt suffer the consequences shut us out she left us without any opportunity to be part of her life. She was a girl who went voluntarily to syria go. And welcome to the talk shop 2 and a half years after the u. S. Withdrawal iraq is at risk of being plunged into chaos also here are a mass safe distance we might pinch also says to the pace at which a few 1000 jihadists a terrorizing an entire country designing their militias are over running around one 3rd of iraq and syria and setting up a ruthless regime of terror. And somewhere in this self declared caliphate was later nora gushing with pride over her husband. Who went by the name of me heard. Me had just say it was born martin limca and was a welder in a mine in germany before joining ins where he reportedly came to hold a senior position in ai as intelligence a fellow german i asked recruit would later testify that instead of torturing people himself had others do it for him leonora was getting acquainted with her new home rocca the capital of the i asked color foot she texted her dad about what shed seen. Us. The roundabout was right outside leonoras home. By s. Used such violent images as propaganda on the internet in order to recruit new people and intimidate opponents. In the weeks after leonora disappeared the police were informed and visited mikes home where they seized his daughters computer. But there was little they could do. Yet mike is heading to berlin to a Counseling Center called high art arabic for life it was set up to help families whose children have signed up to islamist groups. There he met dozens of families in a similarly desperate situation in the centers director cloudier done advised parents to talk to their children about everyday things in the hope that theyll get homesick. A fetus is and the crucial thing is that you realize youre not alone because youre not the only idiot in germany whose daughters runaway leonor appeared unaware of exactly what kind of place she was now living in me and i asked in rocca laws and punishment what draconian me listening to western music was punished with a whipping me leonora and her fellow wives managed to have their own little parties in secret. Leonora soon began to lose faith in i. A. S. She found her husband disgusting i asked brutal and was unhappy to be one of 3 wives i thought 5 more not after around 2 months she seemed to realize for the 1st time that this wasnt everything she had hoped for. And out of the she admitted as much i said she wanted to come home. And wanted us to help her. In your work and then it helps if you know people who know other people like him. The people mike was referring to was our team we knew the other people smugglers some of whom had close ties to i. A. S. But 1st we want unsure whether journalists should get involved in such a way but after lengthy discussions we decided we would but under the condition that mike alone would take all decisions our team would accompany him merely as observers the meeting was arranged in turkey when mike arrived we were already there. Smuggling people out of i asked territory was extremely dangerous especially when a woman was involved. Michael met the smuggler in a hotel in southern turkey. We kept our distance while listening in mike did the negotiating. The stuff and. I met with this was a smartly dressed guy. He said he had links to the nusra front. So basically. The highest. Mikos pads or mike from the hamlet of bach was having a cup of tea with 2 guys from alqaeda i think of the smoking around 100 cigarettes. But its not me and youre incredibly tense what its like youre talking through interpreters. The smugglers set out a complex secret operation involving 3 cars and forged documents. Mike was tempted to give them the go ahead straight away i want my kid back. It was kind of that means that afterwards i face prosecution for giving money to a terrorist organization id be happy to go to jail as long as my child is back home and. With that go ahead somewhere in syria a group of men set out for rucka. They had already smuggled people out of what was now the capital of i asked. That plan to get leonora was potentially a matter of life or death. Because rocca the heart of i ask was teeming with militias patrolling the city seemingly at every street corner. Shops or even often i asked her concretely know she was up to it just said in her typically casual way sure no problem. Leonora sent her father a Current Location and photos of the surrounding area if caught doing best buy ins she could be sentenced to death. For what that was the plan. To fake up alone or in a car where she would travel with a cover family as their daughter that. They were repeated problems toward in a to pick up with each failure the danger rose. Where are they im waiting and nobody is here please dad just leave it to pull. Around a dozen such attempts failed to work out. The other cog i was there was an hour or an hour and a half each day that were just crushing your nerves having to get the questions rightly repeating answers correctly it was nerve wracking when youre so wound up to start to put into words. But they decided not to give up. The boom. Boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom the boll. Just bought us that was the last thing we heard or read from her directly live and. Then silence for days there wasnt a single word from leonora instead they heard from her husband me hot. Button book we were really afraid for lay off with calm kind of madam and then we didnt hear anything nothing rover a week you want to go on that one issue. Event the 2nd wife of martin alias nihad got in touch. Back in brighton about how mike and the rest of the family needed time before they could start believing the news. Slowly it sank in that leonora was dead that she had been killed in a civil war that wasnt hers. 3 weeks after the news of her death we visited mike for the 1st time with the camera again. He told us he was trying to somehow get through the days that he hadnt made it through a 90 had without trying. Thank you distort your child is to. You know you phrased you failed to get her out of the earth and you shove your sword. The event the bomb from going to plant this tree thought we were preparing her but will be saying farewell to our child. Well have a place we can go which is symbolically her last resting place and board a ship and. We took stock of the last few months going over everything again and again. The family organized a Memorial Service so that everyone could say goodbye then suddenly a message arrived. But was it really her my couldnt be sure so he asked questions to which only leonora would know the answers what had best childhood friends home looked like inside the names of her grandfathers ponies. The answers were correct leonora was alive. Even if she was still living under a terrorist regime islamiyah arabic for Islamic State. And he was a tall order man or woman young or old and. Even slightly toying with the idea of going off to sit in. Because i should be aware of what theyre doing and this is as good theyre making their family go through hell. Leonoras families that help continue every day every week every month and mike was haunted by the question of how his daughter was and whether he would ever see her again. Winter 20152016 in syria people were being killed on a daily basis on all sides. Have. Mancow minister cannot for right now there is nothing we can do just wait. On a question assure you of that we were getting experienced in this. Not giving up is the most important thing because sometimes you have lows. Cura to carry on. But mike was permanently on edge the constant flow of messages in use was like being on a hamster wheel that never stopped spinning. Leonora contacted him reported that her husband nihad now had a slave a woman he bought. Some loony had came home yesterday sometime after midnight and said sorry bought myself a slave for 800. 00 when i was like 100. 00 is nothing its how can somebody do that comes from a human being. Shes easy at least 30 years old and has 2 children so i dont know what to say. I feel so sorry for her her arms are blue no idea if not treat her well at all shes really starting from muscle x. There are the words of mass executions of women and girls being right and sold into prostitution and of children being forcibly recruited for fighting for the title it seems the displacement of these e. D. s is deliberate people who are not children slave to driven out of their villages with no water or food. And i said our 1st thought was this poor woman of those years 2 kids i think im pleased mercy you have a dangerous man. How can a person change like that because the question keeps bothering me shifty fact that hes grown up here and probably happily he went to kindergarten and high school a normal civilized person wouldnt buy himself a slave. Im so shocked. I want to help her and its like i want her to at least have a few ok days thats had a. Chance so sorry thank god. The woman was called la mia she wouldnt be an issue for leonora for very long because soon after this photo was used to offer her for sale back to her family. One year later in 2016 i drove to Northern Iraq i guess free territory. I had found refuge in a displaced persons camp here i been looking for her for months. I cautiously stepped into the room. I was still severely traumatized. We communicated with the help of an interpreter. Nobody could say how many men had literally owned her she was barely able to talk after a while i showed her a photo of leonoras husband. Did he buy her. Even though. This industrial member his name. Out. With us how did he treat or. So on that there will. Be peace we. We then left alone for the entire time we were there the children likewise barely said a word. Llambias husband was still missing she was living and her brother in laws tent. The family had to raise 24000. 00 to secure her release money they didnt have. It would spend another 3 years in this kurdish tent city since 2019 she and her children have been living in safety in canada and weve been told shes doing a little better. Suddenly last night fighters began advancing on the terrace militias unofficial capital krakow for the barricades on rocker in the autumn of 2017. When. A short time later leonora left rocca and i asked lost control over the city. When mike heard the news he feared the worst for his daughter as so often before. That still youre sitting here you cant do anything. You feel completely powerless. To try to distract yourself and not think about it too much through fear that will because theres nothing you can do. The most you just have to accept things as they come. In the. Meanwhile leonora was carrying on with her life she posted m. O. G. s brazing her 1st week of pregnancy. While leonora was still somewhere in syria i travel to the liberated city of raka now little more than a wasteland of ruins and rubble i found the apartment where she used to live. It up into my eyes when she posted photos from morocco back then i spent ages searching the internet to find out exactly which building she was in. This was what was left of the stairwell leading to her apartment. Leonora spent several months here and evidently made herself at home while just out on the streets people were being locked in cages and i as was publicly torturing and murdering. Leonora and other i asked deaver to use one now on the run and being hunted down by the International Coalition led by the united states. 2017. She was probably somewhere in the vicinity of the Euphrates River in eastern syria. And. While my continued to keep his bakery running leonora was trying to find a people smuggler to get her to turkey and out of the war. There is the smuggler who got 10 women out of her yesterday without any problems. Ok ok use that chance get out of there as quickly as you can. Come and then the day actually arrived when they said they were setting off was. Coming right out its me leo im at the wing point and praying to allah that was each other soon ok the spaniards and a few minutes time ill be offline. Montoya angel like im pretty anxious of you but i guess it has to work out. How much data stay strong dont cry. Dont come and then there were no more messages that maybe they really had set off. And then our smuggler of choice contacted me. And he started this horrible. I was really nasty he was game is the wrong mourning the things he said there are loads of checkpoints were having to bribe so many people so we need more money you can write back a 100 times i havent got any more. For i build up this unbelievable pressure so what can you do. You want around in circles going out of your mind. Before you can go. Ahead and drinking helps you know. Youre a complete wreck because you know the next message they send could be. Well i think good as it was going to. Come in the to me the eventually they had me so desperate that i said fine im actually going to have to transfer the 8000. 00 he won so that they at least stay alive. But they werent even able to tell me where to wire it to. None the less you realize these guys really have to be nuts and youre just helpless. If was. It was so tough thought those few days were worse than the 4 years before that. Its difficult to describe the beast in your mind youre up on the ladder and the news says above you vegas is just too much its not possible to do because not reach a point where you just cant take it anymore i cant do this to anyone anymore. It would seem its so bad that you want to give up and give yourself up thought it was all because you want an end to this misery with you and im no longer alive then ok maybe leo will also donald but then my family will have peace. And they miss the point you reach so i actually block out the number i just couldnt go on and fix. Who could fix the problem. And what i just told myself i wouldnt cry today i was well. It was one of our darkest hours because the northeastern. He severed contact knowingly on nora might die. The mental strain from mike and his family back home and cry its simply too big. For us going to stay the day after i dont remember exactly leo contacted me it didnt work out we didnt even leave but its through this how do you not just keel over. In autumn 2018 leonora was still on the run with her husband me heart with the war still raging around them she had a 2nd child maria also born prematurely. At rates artillery and ground offensives that seem Islamic State reduced to islamic village hello. Hi dad its me leo were in the last religious left were surrounded were on the only street that Islamic State still controls itself our. Los alamitos are living on top of each other starving children are freezing to death. There are no more going to get out theres no future for us here we dont have one single dollar. And seeing as we have absolutely nothing and often have nothing to eat weve decided to give ourselves up. Want to go through with the b. B. B. With the funds were going to i knew it meant the radio syria was back on the air mishawaka after 4 years you build up your own protective armor of the few you already with all the recent football go through as foreigners call it was a voice message from martin limca nearly didnt sound too happy. Least talk to the government im willing to do anything and i was never a soldier i never killed anyone so im willing to pass on any information i have. No there are trials in germany and im willing to help the government is a serious issue and its important for us that the women and children arrive home in good health. I dont want to stay in a jail here in syria i have no problem going to jail in germany and serving my sentence there. Im really afraid. I dont want to get beaten up the whole time i have a heart condition and picked up an ammonia here were all really sex and. So the same men who tried to ruin your life 4 years ago are suddenly saying poor me. And please dont tell anyone about this message if someone here finds out that we want to get out we might end up getting killed in the recent explosion of the movie to go. Down and go take a long plenty to drink just get out of there and take care of yourself. In early 2900 more than 40000 people in the last enclave i ask surrendered. In germany all mike could do was wait for leonora to make it out on january 31st 2019 that wait was finally over. Hi dad its me just want to say that i have left i yes were all really happy that we made it. A had was picked up by the americans but all fine theyve been really really good to us. Even though i got up as usual at 130 quarter to 2 more of the same as usual check my phone and sawed mr whole lot of calls and once a messages friends had recognized the young woman in this video footage as leonora Agency Reporters had met her in the desert. And because i wanted my own my own life a long time ago and now i know that it wasnt a. Little. After him its all but i was on my way to work. Well we come and then it finally went click. And you go back over the last 4 years to get incredible amount of images going through your mind i thought if you need a lot of things you suppressed negative stuff to do i thought of it and you can cry a little bit as well of course and its only then that you realize how much pressure youve been under because it became your daily life so you didnt really even register at all you 2 would suddenly defy you feel yourself getting lighter and lighter and free and i got out of my car and i thought yes awesome its over. They cant you anymore. Leonora was detained in this camp a tent city outside al hole in the Northern Syria together with 70000 others in a fierce debate erupted in germany over whether the country should take back those who had gone to join is. Didnt they pose a threat. We returned to syria in march 2900 it had been 4 years since leonora had run away from home i wanted to finally meet or. Many died from her online chats and be shooting the ones she last posted you sometimes get the impression that despite how long its been and how much older shes become she still has this 90 about her and you wonder how thats possible. To feel even even if its not shes not 19 and shes been through such a loss shes been in a war being bombed out of her home seen all this awful violence and is still so naive and really interesting to see how she is in person. To give much of my ghanaian people while i was about to meet leonora mike in germany was looking forward to his daughter finally returning home although he did have doubts as is everything im not really sure who well be welcoming our. 4 years of bias and propaganda or crap to have a look at this and for the she was really young when she left she was seduced sure before but she was happy to be seduced kind of reform thats also part of the truth before i got to know. Leonora a willing accomplice. Had she now realized what she had done to her family and to people in syria and ultimately to herself too i wanted to know everything including what it was that made Islamic States so appealing to her. If learn my lines on trends and. Im sort of in a lot of people in germany who are converting to islam and britain to. Say and i ended up in this Facebook Group i was young i guess and i wanted a bit of revolution i was in take stream stuff. Maybe i was a coward because i ran away from home and thought this is the way to solve all my problems in one go. She told us she had distanced herself from i guess a long time ago but how did she feel about the things she had done had she really thought about the past 4 years had she confronted her deeds. Everything changed you know the marriage wasnt the same life in general and syria was not for me i was no longer happy with my life. There were also a lot of problems within the family there and i just wanted to go home and i went to that failed things got worse because i understood that i now had to live there whether i wanted to or not. Because i try to escape once my own husband to. This is her husband me her w. R. C. A born martin limca. German prosecutors are preparing a case against him and her issued an arrest warrant. When we met it seems he was hoping for the. Market from germany. Its tough youre under huge mental strain i mean a one man cell i dont see or hear anything. He told us he only worked in the Technical Department of i s intelligence but he never fought never murdered or tortured anyone nor ordered anyone to he insisted he was merely a peripheral figure despite having had a slave why did you buy a slave. Dont be talking without my lawyer. But i havent done anything bad. As it was and she was in very poor health and we helped her but i never talked to her. About it why did you buy a human being with 2 children and it is often the thing is she was doing really badly. And in islam youre rewarded for treating a slave well because leaders have rights. And then he said he said its come to question. Is this woman was really ill but as i said we helped her where we could. And i had no other intentions i already had a big family of course if you work and they wanted to make money by her cheap fatten her up. Look if you want to provoke me no thats not true no no i dont need that money just. Bought her an order to trade her. We had money problems all the time. So martin had to make money. Not only to make some money he said that her up nurse her have her take a shower and give her kids food make sure that you put some weight so shes worth something. Like a fattened car right. Leonoras account incriminated her husband but what about her own row german prosecutors are looking into pressing charges against leonora whos now 19 like her husband she suspected of having spied for Islamic State intelligence and having supported a terrorist organization. Do you ever work for the secret police or pass on information to your husband. I heard that too its just ridiculous. Whether she committed a crime will be decided in the german courts in the eyes of her father she needs to face up to her moral responsibility for having joined a terrorist group. One for the 3rd was that shes not only some little girl who was groomed. She was just as much a perpetrator. You just have to face the reality is the. Leonora seemed carefree as she talked is she naive or traumatized it was hard to tell she doesnt seem to have reflected on how her family were faring kurdish Intelligence Officers then told us our time was up. To thank you for coming thanks to. Leonora gave interviews to other reporters as well and recited passages from the koran. It seems she gave little thought to what impression this would make on people back home in her village. Most people say shes fully bailed out singing muslims on although its not a song. That has learned nothing b. Doesnt belong here and see shes dangerous. Perhaps it would be more prudent for leonora to stay in a neighboring village away from the media frenzy expected to descend on pride. And there indeed appears to be a solution mike and cloudier done from the Berlin Counseling Center met pastor marcus bloomer whos a friend of my. Take a little look around the place ah well thats great the pastor knows how people in the area think and he has experience dealing with individuals whose lives have gone through dramatic changes. The 1st thing we want is for them to have contact with their families and been the one from you nepal last month and to give leonora a place where shell feel at home and safe with her children while still being independent. The German Government still has to decide if and when leonora may come home. Will see. Omens enough and if she does have to go to jail and even for a reason. Shes definitely going for a beer and a schnitzel with me like an oath of allegiance. Like o. T. Politics. Keep learning march to reality wait a 2nd we want the whole picture facts instead of make ideas shift deliver us. From admitted reality to cryptocurrency to your topics for live in an ever changing Digital World lets start with his allies ation shift. For 15 minutes now im told you. Come from nigeria to save the world the superhero summit comic republic news time for scream im comin here is that look like the boss is inspire people to do good nothing the white people could simply hears about africans who do not really have that power supervillains everywhere had better watch out the 77 percent. And 30 minutes on the. W. s crime fighters are back with the for those most successful radio drama series continues through the olympus odes are Available Online course you can share and disco song w. Africas Facebook Page and other social media platforms to crime fighters to me and no. Play. This is deja news live from berlin italy looks down one quarter of its population in a drastic move to try to contain its a corona Virus Outbreak Prime Minister just half a contact on 16000000 people in northern italy into quarantine imposing travel restrictions in the countrys wealthiest and most populous range and also coming up its International Womens day and were looking at brace