German IS woman accused of letting Yazidi 'slave' girl die of thirst on trial

Published On: April 9, 2019 07:00 PM NPT By: AFP/RSS


A German woman who allegedly joined Islamic State has gone on trial accused of letting a five-year-old Yazidi girl she kept as a slave die of thirst while chained outside in the "scorching heat".

The 27-year-old, identified as Jennifer W, is charged with murder, committing a war crime, membership of a terrorist organisation and weapons offences. The case against Jennifer is believed to be the first anywhere in the world for international crimes committed by IS militants against members of the Yazidi minority.

Prosecutors say she converted to Islam in 2013 and travelled to Iraq and joined IS in 2014.

They allege she and her husband, Taha Sabah Noori Al-J, belonged to the IS "morality police", responsible for enforcing strict rules on behaviour, dress code and bans on alcohol and tobacco.

Prosecutors say the pair bought the Yazidi girl and her mother as household slaves in 2015 in then IS-occupied Mosul.

Prominent London-based human rights lawyer Amal Clooney is part of the team representing the dead child's mother, but was not in court for the opening day of the Munich trial.

"After the girl fell ill and wet her mattress, the husband of the accused chained her up outside as punishment and let the child die an agonising death of thirst in the scorching heat," prosecutors alleged.  

"The accused allowed her husband to do so and did nothing to save the girl."

Months after the youngster died, Jennifer W went to the German embassy in the Turkish capital Ankara to apply for new identity papers.

She was arrested by Turkish security services and extradited several days later to Germany where she was allowed to return to her home in Lower Saxony.

She sought to return to Iraq, and according to German newspaper Der Spiegel, an FBI informant posed as an accomplice and offered to take her back in a bugged vehicle.

It is alleged she spoke of the child's death during the journey, and she was arrested.

According to Yazda, a US-based Yazidi rights organisation, the case is believed to be the first prosecution of international crimes committed by IS militants against the religious minority group.

Yazidis are a distinct community of people who practise a religion that has its roots in Sufism and Zoroastrianism.

It is Germany's first trial of a female IS returnee, prosecutor Claudia Gorf told the Munich court.

Wenisch -- wearing a white blouse and black jacket, her dark hair not covered -- showed no emotion and did not speak, but shielded her face with a paper folder while photographers were in the room at the start.

Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Nadia Murad, herself a Yazidi survivor of IS enslavement and torture, said in a statement that the trial "is a very big moment for me and for the entire Yazidi community".

Prominent London-based human rights lawyer Amal Clooney is part of the team representing the dead Yazidi girl's mother, although Clooney did not appear on the trial's opening day.

- 'Agonising death' -

German prosecutors allege Wenisch and her IS husband "purchased" the Yazidi woman and child as household "slaves" whom they held captive while living in then IS-occupied Mosul, Iraq, in 2015.

AFP/File / Tobias SCHWARZNobel Peace Prize winner Nadia Murad, a former IS sex slave, has been part of a campaign to have IS crimes against the Yazidi minority be recognised as a "genocide"

"After the girl fell ill and wet her mattress, the husband of the accused chained her up outside as punishment and let the child die an agonising death of thirst in the scorching heat," prosecutors charge.

"The accused allowed her husband to do so and did nothing to save the girl."

German media said the defendant's husband, Taha Sabah Noori Al-J., had beaten both the mother and child, and that Wenisch allegedly also once held a pistol to the woman's head.

The trial is being held under tight security in a court for state security and terrorism cases, with hearings initially scheduled until September 30.

- Morality police -

Wenisch -- who reportedly left school after the eighth grade and has no job or qualifications -- converted to Islam in 2013 and travelled the following year via Turkey and Syria to Iraq where she joined the IS.

Recruited in mid-2015 to the group's self-styled hisbah morality police, she patrolled city parks in IS-occupied Fallujah and Mosul.

AFP / SAFIN HAMEDIS forcibly displaced hundreds of thousands of Yazidis from their homeland in Iraq

Armed with an AK-47 assault rifle, a pistol and an explosives vest, her task was to ensure strict IS rules on dress code, public behaviour and bans on alcohol and tobacco.

In January 2016, months after the Yazidi child's death, she visited the German embassy in Ankara to apply for new identity papers. When she left the mission, she was arrested and extradited days later to Germany.

For lack of actionable evidence against her at the time, she was allowed to return to her home in the German state of Lower Saxony, but quickly sought to return to IS territory.

- FBI informant -

Der Spiegel reported that an FBI informant posed as an accomplice who offered to take Wenisch and her two-year-old child back to the IS "caliphate".

While they were sitting in a bugged car, headed for Turkey, Wenisch allegedly spoke of her time at the IS and incriminated herself.

She said that the child's death had been "hard-core even for the IS" and unjust because only God had the right to use fire as punishment, adding that her husband had later been beaten as punishment by the IS.

Police followed her car for several hours and listened to a live audio feed, then arrested Wenisch at a highway stop.

Amal Clooney, the wife of Hollywood star George Clooney, has been involved in a campaign to get IS crimes against the Yazidi recognised as a "genocide".

"I hope this will be the first of many trials that will finally bring ISIS to justice in line with international law," the lawyer said in a statement, using an alternative acronym for the group.


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