Genocide on Yazidis: Trial against ISIS member starts in Germany
The trial against an Iraqi man who is accused, among other things, of having let a five-year-old Yazidi girl die of thirst, has begun at the Higher Regional Court in Frankfurt.
The trial of a 27-year-old Iraqi man began on Friday at the Higher Regional Court in Frankfurt am Main. The prosecution accuses Taha A.-J. of having made a five-year-old girl die of thirst in torture. He was extradited to Germany in October and has been in custody ever since. The Federal Prosecutor's Office also accuses the suspected member of the terrorist militia ISIS of genocide, membership of a terrorist organization and human trafficking.
According to investigators, Taha A.-J. allegedly bought the girl and her mother at an ISIS base in Syria and kept and abused them as slaves at his estate in Fallujah, Iraq, between July and September 2015.
ISIS returnee stands trial in Munich
Because the girl urinated on a mattress, the jihadist is said to have punished both the child and her mother. The woman had to spend 30 minutes barefoot in the courtyard of the estate in 50 degrees outside in the shade. The ground was so hot that her feet burned. The man is said to have tied the girl to a window grille with adhesive tape in the blistering heat and exposed her to the blazing sun. The child died of thirst. According to the prosecution, she died in agony.
The Federal Prosecutor's Office bases its accusation on the statements of the Yazidi mother who testified in the trial of A.-J.'s former wife.
Jennifer W., who comes from Lohne in Lower Saxony, is said to have watched inactively as her husband made the girl die. A separate trial against the German ISIS returnee has been underway for about a year at the Munich Higher Regional Court because of the same death. In addition, she is accused of having patrolled as a vice police officer of the ISIS.
Captured in Greece
The investigation was set in motion because W. is said to have told an undercover agent in a bugged car about the crime when she tried to re-enter Iraq. However, she was then arrested in Bavaria. Later, the girl's mother was found.
A.-J. was arrested in Greece in May 2019. He was extradited to Germany in October and has been in custody ever since. Until the end of August, 23 days of hearings are scheduled.
