A German court has convicted an Iraqi couple of enslaving two Yazidi girls and found them guilty of membership in the Islamic State (IS) group. The Munich Higher Regional Court sentenced the man, identified as Twana H.S., to life imprisonment for charges including genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and severe sexual abuse of children. His wife, Asia R.A., received a juvenile sentence of nine and a half years. The couple was arrested in Bavaria in 2024.
The Yazidis, a Kurdish-speaking minority, were subjected to persecution by IS after the group seized territory in Syria and Iraq starting in 2014. Thousands of Yazidi men were killed and women and children were enslaved and raped. Germany recognizes these acts as genocide, and prosecutors accused the defendants of participating in IS's systematic campaign to destroy the Yazidi religion.
Twana H.S. initially arrived in Germany in the early 2000s as an asylum seeker. According to reports, he was granted permission to stay as the parent of a German child. After reportedly becoming radicalized at a Munich mosque, he returned to Iraq in 2015 with his wife, Asia R.A. Prosecutors stated the couple married in Iraq according to Islamic law and joined IS between October 2015 and December 2017.
Prosecutors detailed that in the autumn of 2015, Twana H.S. purchased a five-year-old Yazidi girl as a slave at a bazaar in Mosul, at his wife's request. In early October 2017, the couple bought a twelve-year-old Yazidi girl. The couple is accused of repeatedly raping both children, with the wife allegedly preparing the room for her husband and forcing the girls to perform household chores and childcare while forbidding them from practicing their religion. The children were reportedly beaten, and on one occasion, Asia R.A. scalded the younger girl's hand with hot water.
During the trial, the eldest Yazidi girl provided testimony describing beatings, forced labor, and repeated rapes. The second girl remains missing. The couple stood trial in Germany under the legal principle of universal jurisdiction, which permits prosecution for alleged war crimes committed abroad.
Asia R.A., who is now separated from Twana H.S., offered an apology during the trial, stating, "I'm sorry." Twana H.S. declined to speak in court.