Court convicts Italian woman who joined Islamic State

MILAN – A court has convicted in absentia an Italian woman and her Albanian husband on terrorism charges for traveling to Syria to join the Islamic State group.

In the first case in Italy involving foreign fighters operating inside the war zone, the court on Monday sentenced Maria Giulia Sergio to nine years in prison and her husband, Aldo Kobuzi, to 10 years. They are believed to be in Syria.

Members of Sergio's family, who also were planning to join her in Syria, also were convicted. They included her father, who was convicted of a lesser charge of organizing the journey of jihadists and sentenced to four years in jail. He was arrested in mid-2015, six months after his daughter and son-in-law had departed for Syria.