A German court has convicted an Iraqi couple of enslaving two Yazidi girls and found them guilty of membership in the Islamic State group. The man received a life sentence for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, while his wife received a nine-and-a-half-year sentence.
This conviction highlights Germany's use of universal jurisdiction to prosecute international war crimes, including genocide, and underscores the atrocities committed by the Islamic State against the Yazidi minority.
A court in Munich, Germany, has convicted an Iraqi couple, identified as Twana H.S. and Asia R. A., of enslaving two Yazidi girls and of membership in the Islamic State group (IS). Twana H.S. was sentenced to life imprisonment for charges including genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and severe sexual abuse of children. His wife, Asia R. A., received a juvenile sentence of nine and a half years. The couple was arrested in Bavaria in 2024.
The Yazidis, a Kurdish-speaking minority, faced persecution from IS starting in 2014, with thousands killed and women and children enslaved and raped. Germany recognizes these acts as genocide. Prosecutors alleged the defendants were part of IS's systematic campaign to destroy the Yazidi religion.
According to reports, Twana H.S., who had previously sought asylum in Germany, returned to Iraq in 2015. Prosecutors stated that the couple, married in Iraq, bought a five-year-old Yazidi girl as a slave in the autumn of 2015 and a twelve-year-old girl in October 2017. Twana H.S. is accused of repeatedly raping both children, while his wife allegedly prepared the room for him and scalded one of the girls with hot water. The children were reportedly forced into household work and forbidden from practicing their religion, and were subjected to beatings.
The trial proceeded in Germany under the principle of universal jurisdiction, which permits prosecution for international war crimes. Asia R.A. apologized during the trial, stating, "I'm sorry." Twana H.S. declined to speak in court. The second girl is reported to be missing.