Joanna Palani, 23, violated Denmark’s “foreign fighter rule” after she fled her homeland in 2014 to fight alongside the Kurds in the Middle East.

Copenhagen City Court is trying Ms Palani under the rule, which aims to prevent Danes fighting alongside terror groups.

But ironically, the young woman was actually fighting against the jihadis.

Ms Palani first left her country in 2014 to fight in Syria for the People’s Protection Unit (YPG), before joining the Peshmerga, the Kurdish Regional Government’s Western-backed army.

She said she chose to fight alongside the Kurds “for the human rights of all people” – and earlier this year mocked ISIS jihadis for being “very easy to kill” compared to Bashar Al-Assad’s troops.

But the politics and philosophy student’s bravery has landed her in trouble with the Danish government in the past.

Last year, Ms Palani’s passport was confiscated by police and Danish intelligence agency PET for joining Kurdish forces against ISIS.

She received a year travel ban in September 2015, but violated the restriction when she travelled to Qatar in June.

Ms Palani is now on trial for violating that ban.

Earlier this year Ms Palani told in an interview of the horrors she witnessed fighting jihadi extremists in Syria – including seeing a friend killed by sniper fire after an ISIS militant saw smoke from his cigarette.

She said: “I wasn’t taking it seriously when I first came there. But after the first attack I did. I took it seriously indeed.”

She also said her battalion found young girls locked in a “holding house” for sexual abuse after freeing a village near Mosul from ISIS.

She said: “All the girls were under 16 – some were really young. I met this girl in the hospital we had to bring them to.

“She was a Syrian Christian and she dies holding my hand because she was 11-years-old and she was pregnant with twins.

Her little face was so swollen. It just wasn’t right. I remember the doctor crying and yelling at me and my first soldier.”

She added: “I would give my life for Europe, for democracy, for freedom and for women’s rights.

“I feel like I have been betrayed by those who I was ready to sacrifice my life for.”

Ms Palani will appear back in court on December 20.

Source: express.co.uk