© AFP / dpa / Peter Kneffel
The trial of a German woman who joined ISIS and is accused of the war crime of letting a five-year-old Yazidi slave die of thirst under the blistering sun began in Munich Tuesday.
The case is believed to be the first of its kind in the world for international crimes committed by Islamic State against the Yazidi people.
“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 stated, AFP reports.
The accused allowed her husband to do so and did nothing to save the girl.
Curious phrase - 'allowed her husband', as if this invisible woman had to give her permission to her husband for anything.
The 27-year-old woman, identified only as ‘Jennifer W.’ stands accused of murder and murder as a war crime, in addition to membership of a terrorist organisation as well as weapon control violations under German law. She faces a maximum penalty of life in prison and declined to make any statement during the initial 15-minute hearing. It remains unclear whether she will testify or issue any statement throughout the proceedings.
London-based human rights lawyer Amal Clooney, wife of Hollywood star George Clooney, is a member of the team representing the Yazidi girl's mother. Initial hearings are scheduled to take place through to September 30.
Prosecutors allege that Jennifer W. and her husband, IS fighter Taha Sabah Noori Al-J., purchased the girl and her mother in ISIS-occupied Mosul, Iraq in 2015.
Jennifer W. reportedly left school and converted to Islam in 2013, travelling through Turkey and Syria to join IS in 2014. She would join the group's so-called hisbah 'morality police' in 2015, patrolling cities like Fallujah and Mosul armed with an AK47 rifle and draped with an explosive vest to enforce the terrorist group's extremist ideology.
In January 2016, months after the Yazidi girl's death, Jennifer W. sought new identity papers at the German embassy in Ankara, Turkey whereupon she was arrested by Turkish authorities after exiting the building and was extradited to Germany.
'Hardcore even for ISIS'
Due to a dearth of evidence against her, Jennifer W. was allowed to return home but was reportedly arrested during an FBI sting operation as she attempted to return to the so-called ‘Caliphate’. During the sting operation, she was recorded admitting what she and her husband had done to the Yazidi girl which she admitted was “hardcore even for ISIS.”
She also stated the abuse was unjust as only God may punish sinners with fire, adding that her husband was later beaten by IS members as punishment.
So it appears she was not in agreement with her husband, but it is questionable as to how much influence she had over him, or whether she had opportunity to help the girl and didn't use it. She deserves some degree of punishment for just being there and marrying an ISIS fighter. I'm not convinced she deserves life in prison.
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