A migrant couple sentenced to prison for enslaving girls
A Munich court has sentenced an Iraqi couple to long prison terms for enslaving two Yazidi girls and committing genocide as Islamic State [IS] members.
The Higher Regional Court of Munich [Oberlandesgericht München] gave the 45-year-old man, Twana H.S., life in prison for genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and serious sexual abuse of children. The court said he should not be considered for parole before 19 years and three months. His wife, Asia R.A., now 30, received nine years and six months. Because she was a minor when the crimes began, she was tried under youth law.
Prosecutors said the couple held two Yazidi girls as slaves in a house in Iraq near the Syrian desert between 2015 and 2017. The man bought the first girl, aged five or six, in 2015 and a second girl, aged 12, in 2017. Both were raped repeatedly. The court found the wife supported the abuse, gave the youngest girl a new name, banned her mother tongue, forced Islamic prayers five times a day and restricted food. The girls could not leave the house alone and lived under constant violence.
One survivor testified in court. She described being burned with hot water, beaten on the soles of her feet with a stick and told that “even dogs had a higher value than us.” She said she was displayed at a market before being bought and was forced to clean and cook before being raped at night. The second girl gave video testimony calling her experience “horrific.” Both are now severely traumatized and no longer speak their mother tongue without a translator.
Judge Philipp Stoll explained that genocide does not require killing. It is enough to forcibly remove children from a group and place them in another ethnic and religious group. He said the couple’s actions fit IS’s stated aim to eliminate Yazidis. Germany’s Protestant church notes Yazidis trace their roots 4,000 years and about one million live worldwide, with around 200,000 in Germany. The court also urged a review of radicalization in German mosques after hearing the man had been radicalized in a Salafist mosque in Munich before returning to Iraq in 2015. Both were already convicted of IS membership in April 2024. The sentences can be appealed.