A German court has sentenced an ISIS couple to lengthy prison terms for enslaving and repeatedly raping two Yazidi girls between 2015 and 2017. The couple, identified as Twana HS and Asia RA, were arrested in Germany in April 2024.
Twana HS received a life sentence, while Asia RA was sentenced to nine and a half years in prison. The Federal Prosecutor's Office and the Higher Regional Court of Munich stated that the couple operated in an area controlled by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
Prosecutors alleged that the couple first enslaved a five-year-old Yazidi girl and later a twelve-year-old girl. The children were forced into household labor and indoctrinated with ISIS ideology, with their own religious practices suppressed in favor of Islam. Twana HS is accused of multiple rapes of both girls, with his wife allegedly facilitating these assaults by preparing a room and applying makeup to one of the victims.
The couple also subjected the girls to regular abuse. Twana HS reportedly beat the older girl with a broom handle, and Asia RA scalded the younger girl's hand with hot water. Both children were allegedly punished by being forced to stand on one leg for extended periods.
After ISIS lost territory in late 2017, the couple fled the region but did not release the girls, instead handing them over to other ISIS members. They were apprehended years later in Bavaria, Germany; Asia RA in Regensburg and Twana HS in Roth.
The Yazidis are a Kurdish-speaking ethno-religious minority primarily from northern Iraq who have faced severe persecution from ISIS militants, including killings, rape, and forced child recruitment.
In a separate case, a German woman identified as Jennifer W. was sentenced in 2023 to 14 years in prison by a Munich court for enslaving a five-year-old Yazidi girl who died of thirst. Initially given a 10-year sentence, her punishment was increased on appeal due to aggravating circumstances and errors in the initial sentencing.
