A 30-year-old German woman and former member of the extremist Islamic State group in Iraq has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for allowing an enslaved Yazidi girl to die of thirst.
The Higher Regional Court in Munich convicted the woman – identified only as Jennifer W in line with German privacy rules – of charges including membership of a terrorist organisation abroad, aiding and abetting attempted murder, attempted war crimes and crimes against humanity.
German prosecutors say the woman and her husband “purchased” a Yazidi woman and her 5-year-old child as household slaves in Mosul in 2015.
They accused the woman of standing by in Iraq as her then husband chained the young girl in a courtyard and left her to die of thirst in the hot sun. Her husband is facing a separate trial in Frankfurt. The child victim was described in court as “defenceless” and helplessly exposed”.
According to German media, Jennifer W reportedly made her way to Iraq through Turkey and Syria in 2014 to join the Islamic State.
In 2015, she was recruited by IS “morality police”, and began patrolling parks in Fallujah and Mosul, armed with an assault rifle and a pistol as well as an explosive vest. Prosecutors said she was looking for women who did not conform with the jihadist group’s strict dress code.
Originally from Lohne in Lower Saxony, Jennifer W grew up as a Protestant but converted to Islam in 2013.
She was arrested in Ankara, Turkey while trying to renew her identity papers at the German embassy in 2016, and was deported back to Germany.
She pleaded not guilty in court.
The Yazidis were targeted by members of Isis, with many women and children seized as slaves.
