A 19-year-old high school student, she fled to Winnipeg in 2017 to escape ISIS gunmen who invaded northern Iraq and forced women and girls inside sexual slavery.

She thought she was safe in Manitoba’s capital, then last summer she was allegedly sexually assaulted by her own community leader.

A man accused of repeatedly trying to force her behind a closed door in a darkened room, Hadji Hesois the executive director of the Yazidi Association of Manitoba.

Hesso spoke to federal government ministers and MPs and attended a number of gala events. The day after he was accused of sexual assault, he was spotted at the mayor’s ball.

“I hope he stays in jail,” the alleged victim told Global News in a series of exclusive interviews after the Winnipeg Police Service arrested Hesso for the third time on Dec. 2.

After Global News first discovered After his arrest, many were shocked by the fact that the leader of a Canadian organization that helps Yazidi victims of sexual violence allegedly hunted one of them.

Widely praised for its work, Hess’s group was the first advocate for victims of ISIS atrocities. IN testimony He described the trauma of the Yezidis to the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration.

“Many women and girls who have arrived in Canada are going through difficult times,” he said. “It’s hard and it varies from person to person.” He called on the government to “relocate vulnerable Yazidi women and girls here to Canada.”

Now he is accused not only of abusing one of them, but also of allegedly threatening her and violating the conditions of his bail that he had no contact with her.

Meanwhile, Global News has learned that his non-profit group has continued to operate despite being disbanded by the Manitoba government more than a year ago for failing to file annual reports.

The alleged victim cannot be identified due to a court-ordered publication ban. Hess’ attorney, Alex Steigerwald, declined to comment. Hesso has not been convicted and denies the charges.

But in an interview at her family’s home in Winnipeg, the alleged victim told her story of war, displacement and claims of re-victimization in her adopted country.

“I just want to tell people to be very careful,” she said. “Don’t go out alone and just really focus on your safety.”

Ten years ago, the Yazidi ethno-religious minority in northern Iraq suffered one of the worst crimes against humanity in recent times.

After declaring themselves the rulers of Islamic State, the gunmen surrounded villages around Sinjar, the center of the Yezidi population, and ordered residents to convert or face death.

Widely recognized as a genocidethe attack was part of Islamic State’s attempt to erase religious diversity from its so-called caliphate.

The terrorist group executed thousands of men, took boys to be trained as fighters and kidnapped women and girls to Syria, where they were forced to serve ISIS men.

Under ISIS, they were subjected to “enslavement, torture, inhuman treatment, murder and rape, including sexual slavery,” the United Nations reported in August.

The Winnipeg teenager was just 9 years old at the time, but she recalled the shooting, bodies and blood as she fled on foot with her parents, siblings.

“We fled to Kurdistan,” she said. “And after that, in 2017, we came to Canada.” She said the family wanted a “safe place” after Iraq.

When they arrived in Winnipeg, the local Yezidis helped them get settled. “They helped us find a house and a school and everything,” she said.

Help came from a newly formed non-profit organization: the Yezidi Association of Manitoba

The Yezidi Association of Manitoba was founded in 2017, two months after the federal government announced this would relocate 1,200 Yezidi women, children and their families.

The founding directors were Hesso and two others, provincial government records show. The group’s registered address is Hesso’s residence in Winnipeg.

For the traumatized refugees arriving in the city, who were mostly women and girls with little knowledge of English, the group played a crucial role.

“They were instrumental in helping the Yezidis move to Winnipeg,” said Prof. Lori Wilkinson, Canada Research Chair in the Future of Migration in the Department of Sociology and Criminology, University of Manitoba.

Co-author of a study on Yazidi refugees commissioned by the federal government, Wilkinson said the group clearly needs support because they arrived in Canada so soon after the genocide by ISIS, also known as DAESH.

“They were prisoners of DAESH, and then they woke up in Canada,” she said.

“Most refugees are traumatized in some way, but especially for Yazidi women, but also for some children, they were brought here at a moment that psychologists would call an acute level of trauma, it just happened.”

Testifying to members of parliament in 2017. Hesso said his group worked in partnership with Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada.

“We provide opportunities for socializing, transportation, medical care, and the most important thing is interpretation and integration into Canadian society,” he said.

IRCC said it did not provide any direct funding to Hess’s organization, but that the group “participated in consultations and meetings” about services “for this vulnerable population arriving in Winnipeg.”

“We have no other relationship with the Yezidi Association of Manitoba,” the spokesperson said.

Photos on social media show Hesso with Manitoba Premier Waba Kinew, two immigration ministers, Liberal and Conservative MPs and members of the Winnipeg Police Service and RCMP.

In 2022, his association was commended in the Manitoba legislature in a ministerial statement recognizing its “leadership in supporting Yazidi refugees.”

But according to the Manitoba government, Hess’s group was dissolved in 2023 after failing to file annual reports for two consecutive years.

“As of December 9, 2024, the Yazidi Association of Manitoba Corp. is inactive on the Business Office registry,” a provincial spokesperson told Global News.

The association did not respond to emails seeking comment on the matter, nor did it respond to questions about Hess or his funding sources.

Aurora Family Therapy Centre, a Winnipeg charity, said in a statement to Global News that it has partnered with the Yezidi Association of Manitoba and other groups “to deliver enhanced and targeted summer programs to refugee children and youth.”

“We did not know that they had been deleted from the corporate register,” said CEO Abdikheir Ahmed. “We will change our procedures in the future.

“Last summer was the last year of the project and there are no plans to continue the relationship.”

The Yezidi Association of Winnipeg had been a part of the alleged victim’s life since she arrived in Winnipeg, but over the summer she found herself alone with Hess.

“I was looking at him, he was looking at me and I knew he was going to do something,” she said. “He was trying to touch me, touch my face.”

“I didn’t let him,” she said.

She refused him, but he persisted, she said. “He kept touching my leg and telling me ‘give me your hand,'” she stated.

The events allegedly took place while they were alone in the canteen of the social facility, with the door closed and the lights off.

At his request, she said that she would not tell anyone, he states. But he later allegedly texted her asking for explicit sexual favors, she said.

She told her teachers about the alleged incidents, the school called the police, and officers arrived to take her videotaped statement.

On the same day he was charged, Hesso was released on bail. The next evening, according to the seating chart and photos on his social media, he attended the mayor’s ball.

The City of Winnipeg said guests either purchased tickets or attended through tickets “purchased by an outside organization.”

Twelve days later, Hesso was arrested again, this time for allegedly violating the conditions of his release on bail, which required him to have no direct or indirect contact with the alleged victim.

Hess’ cousin allegedly went to her house and tried to convince her to drop the complaint, accusing her of being paid to make the allegations.

Hesso denied allegations that he sent a relative to her house.

He was released on bail on November 28, but was re-arrested by police on December 2 for allegedly threatening the alleged victim and failing to comply with bail conditions.

The latest charges stem from an alleged encounter near the teenager’s home. She and her sister were walking when they heard someone call out, “We’re going to kill you one day,” she said.

“And I saw him,” she said.

He was driving and watching her, she added. Another person was also in the car, she said. She said she couldn’t be sure it was his voice, but she thought it was.

Wilkinson said it was not unusual for vulnerable women to become victims of sexual crimes.

“In every single community — the Canadian community, immigrant communities — there will always be some people who take advantage of the situation, knowing full well that what they’re doing is ruining someone’s life,” she said.

“And the actions of one man should not tarnish the overall good work that this organization has done.”

The Yezidi Association of Manitoba said Hesso remained in his position, but the Ethnocultural Council of Manitoba removed him from its board, saying it was “not appropriate” for him to continue.

Hesso remains in custody. But the alleged victim said she’s worried a Manitoba court could release him on bail a third time.

The Yezidi community understood her, she said.

“Yes, most of them support me, stand behind me and help me,” she said.

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