German ISIS bride who chained up five-year-old Yazidi slave girl in the sun and let her

A German federal court said Wednesday it had rejected a woman’s appeal of her 14-year sentence for allowing a 5-year-old Yazidi girl she and her husband enslaved when they were members of the Islamic State group in Iraq to die of thirst in the sun.

The defendant, a German convert to Islam, was convicted in October 2021 of, among other charges, two counts of crimes against humanity through enslavement – one case resulting in death – and membership of a terrorist organization abroad.

She was initially given a 10-year sentence, which was overturned by the Federal Court of Justice on the grounds that judges had erred in sentencing the defendant for a ‘less severe case’ of crimes against humanity and overlooked aggravating circumstances.

A new sentencing hearing for the woman, identified only as Jennifer W. in line with German privacy rules, ended in August with the 14-year sentence.

The court said Wednesday it rejected her appeal as ‘manifestly unfounded’. The statement on the ruling didn’t specify on what grounds she appealed.

The defendant, ashamed to show her face, hid behind her legal folder in court in 2021

She was convicted in October 2021 of, among other things, two counts of crimes against humanity through enslavement and one resulting in death as part of ISIS

The girl died in Fallujah, Iraq, in August 2015. At the original trial, the court found that the defendant did nothing to help the girl – who had been chained by her husband in their courtyard – although doing so would have been ‘possible and reasonable’.

The couple also enslaved the girl’s mother.

Jennifer W., now 32, was taken into custody while trying to renew her identity papers at the German Embassy in Ankara in 2016 and deported to Germany.

Her former husband, an Iraqi citizen identified only as Taha Al-J., was convicted by a Frankfurt court in November 2021 of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and bodily harm resulting in death.

He was sentenced to life imprisonment.

The girl’s mother, who survived captivity, testified at both trials.

Following her conversion to Islam, Jennifer W. was recruited by the terrorist organization in mid-2015 to the group’s self-styled hisbah morality police. 

She patrolled city parks in IS-occupied Fallujah and Mosul, armed with an AK-47 assault rifle, a pistol, and an explosives vest.

She was tasked by the group to ensure strict IS rules on dress code, public behaviour, and bans on alcohol and tobacco.

A Kurdish-speaking group hailing from northern Iraq, the Yazidis were specifically targeted and oppressed by the jihadists beginning in 2015. Pictured: A Yazidis girl in 2014 fleeing the violence rests at the border with Syria. 

The German ISIS member was originally given 10 years in prison in 2021 for her involvement in the death of a five-year-old Yazidi slave girl

German law allows for a life sentence in cases where a defendant’s actions result in a person’s death 

Wenisch’s initial trial began in April 2019, and was one of the first examples of court proceedings over the Islamic State group’s brutal treatment of Yazidis. 

A Kurdish-speaking group hailing from northern Iraq, the Yazidis were specifically targeted and oppressed by the jihadists beginning in 2015. 

London-based human rights lawyer Amal Clooney – who was involved in a campaign for ISIS crimes against the Yazidi community to be recognised as a ‘genocide’ – was part of the team representing the Yazidi girl’s mother at the time.

Germany has charged several German and foreign nationals with war crimes and crimes against humanity carried out abroad, using the legal principle of universal jurisdiction which allows crimes to be prosecuted even if they were committed in a foreign country.