German Woman Accused of Crimes Against Humanity in Iraq Faces Retrial for Letting Yezidi Girl Die
A new trial is set to begin in Munich against a German Islamist extremist, identified as Jennifer W under German privacy laws, who is accused of crimes against humanity for allegedly allowing a 5-year-old Yezidi girl to die in Iraq. The trial, scheduled to last eight days, comes after an appeals court deemed her initial 10-year sentence in 2021 as too lenient, potentially leading to a longer prison term.
Jennifer W, who joined the Islamic State at the age of 23 and got married in Syria during the time when the terrorist organization occupied parts of eastern Syria and northwestern Iraq, was married to a man who chained the young girl in their home’s courtyard. The man is currently serving a life sentence in Germany after being convicted of genocide by a Frankfurt court. The sentence was later confirmed by the Karlsruhe court.
The girl, who had been abducted by the Islamic State along with her mother, tragically died in August 2015 in Falluja, where temperatures rose above 50 degrees Celsius. She was chained by her hands to the window bars, with her feet suspended in the air, causing her to suffer from heatstroke. Jennifer W was found to have failed to intervene and save the girl. A new verdict may be handed down on August 29.
The initial trial began in April 2019 and lasted approximately two and a half years.
