A five-year-old girl dies of thirst in the scorching heat on an estate in Iraq. The man who is said to have kept her as a slave is now being sentenced.
Frankfurt – In the trial for the death of an enslaved Yezidi girl, the Higher Regional Court (OLG) Frankfurt sentenced the accused to life imprisonment. The judges spoke to the Iraqi Taha Al-J. Guilty of genocide and a war crime resulting in death on Tuesday (November 30th, 2021). He also has to pay the girl’s mother 50,000 euros in damages. The presiding judge Christoph Koller spoke of the world’s first verdict for the crimes of the terrorist militia Islamic State (IS) against the Yazidis minority. During the preliminary remarks on the grounds for the judgment, the defendant slumped in the hall and the session was interrupted.
Al-J. allegedly as a member of ISIS between July and September 2015 to have held and abused a Yezidis and her daughter as slaves. In order to punish the five-year-old, he is said to have handcuffed her to a window grille in the scorching heat in the courtyard of the property in Fallujah, Iraq, where the child died of thirst, according to the indictment.
Yazidi girl dies of thirst: ex-wife of the accused already convicted
ISIS systematically persecuted the Yazidis religious community. Jennifer W., the former wife of Al-J., With whom he was married according to the Islamic rite, was sentenced to ten years in prison by the Munich Higher Regional Court in October. As a witness in the trial of Al-J. she had described her ex-husband as violent. Al-J. himself did not comment on the allegations made against him. (dpa)
