Iraqi sentenced to life for enslaving Yazidi girls
A German court is prosecuting an alleged ISIS member accused of enslaving and abusing Yazidi girls in Iraq. The case highlights Germany’s use of universal jurisdiction to try war crimes committed abroad.
German federal prosecutors arrested an Iraqi couple, Twana H. S. and Asia R. A., on suspicion of genocide and crimes against humanity. They are accused of enslaving two Yazidi girls between 2015 and 2017 in Iraq and Syria.
According to prosecutors, the girls were physically abused, repeatedly raped, and banned from practicing their Yazidi religion. The couple allegedly handed the girls to other IS members before leaving Syria in November 2017. Prosecutors said the acts served “the organisation’s objective to destroy the Yazidi religion”.
Germany has used universal jurisdiction laws to bring such cases to trial even when crimes happened outside its borders. In 2021 a German court sentenced a former IS member to life for genocide and crimes against humanity against Yazidis. In 2023 German lawmakers officially recognized IS crimes against Yazidis in Iraq in 2014 as genocide.
The Yazidis are an ancient religious minority in eastern Syria and northwest Iraq whose faith blends elements of Zoroastrian, Christian, Manichean, Jewish and Muslim beliefs. ISIS killed thousands of Yazidis, enslaved 7,000 women and girls, and displaced most of the 550,000-strong community from northern Iraq.