An Iraqi in Germany Sentenced to Life Imprisonment for ‘Genocide of Yazidis’
A court in Frankfurt, Germany has sentenced an Iraqi national who joined the ISIS group to life imprisonment on charges of participating in the genocide of Yazidis. His German wife was also sentenced to 10 years in prison.
The French news agency reported on Tuesday, December 30, that 29-year-old Taha al-Jumaily, who joined the “Islamic State” (ISIS) group in 2013, was convicted on charges including genocide of Yazidis, crimes against humanity resulting in death, war crimes, participation and complicity in war crimes, and inflicting physical injuries resulting in death.
The report states that after the verdict was announced, the defendant lost consciousness and court proceedings were temporarily suspended.
Yazidis, an ethnic and religious minority in northern Iraq, were attacked by ISIS. The ISIS members killed Yazidi men, raped their women, and forced their children to serve as fighters.
In May, a UN special rapporteur announced that sufficient evidence and documents proving “genocide” committed by ISIS against the Yazidis had been obtained.
The prosecutors in the case stated that Taha al-Jumaily, the defendant, and Jennifer Wenisch, his German wife, had purchased a Yazidi woman and a child as “slaves” during their residence in Mosul, Iraq in 2015 and kept them in servitude.
They later moved to Fallujah. Taha al-Jumaily is accused of chaining the five-year-old girl to a window outside the building in 50-degree Celsius heat because she had wet herself, and the girl died from severe dehydration.
The girl’s mother had previously appeared in courts in Munich and Frankfurt and testified about the torture and death of her daughter.
The defendant’s German wife was also sentenced to 10 years in prison on charges of “committing crimes against humanity through slavery” and “participation in the killing of the girl through failure to assist her.”
Source: Voice of America
