German ISIS bride who let five-year-old Yazidi slave girl die of thirst in sun faces new sentence
Germany’s Supreme Court on Thursday ordered a new sentencing hearing for a German ISIS member who was sentenced to 10 years in prison for her involvement in the death of a five-year-old Yazidi slave girl.
Jennifer Wenisch joined ISIS in Iraq and left the young girl to die of thirst after being chained in the sun in August 2015 for having bed-wetted.
She and her husband at the time, an ISIS fighter, had bought the young Yazidi girl and her mother as house slaves.
The initial sentence of 10 years in prison in 2021 was considered too lenient by the German public prosecutor.
The 31-year-old defendant, originally from Lohne in Lower Saxony, now risks a higher sentence.
Defendant Jennifer Wenisch arrives in a courtroom for her trial in Munich, October 25, 2021
Jennifer Wenisch, originally from Lohne in Lower Saxony, joined ISIS in Iraq and left the young girl to die of thirst after being chained in the sun
Germany’s Federal Court of Justice rejected an appeal by the woman – who was identified by the court only as Jennifer W. in accordance with the country’s privacy rules – but partially approved an appeal by prosecutors.
The court overturned the verdict on Thursday, but not the rest of the verdict, and sent the case back to the Munich court for a new decision.
The woman was convicted in October 2021 of, among other things, two crimes against humanity through slavery, in one case resulting in death, complicity in attempted murder and membership of a terrorist organization abroad.
The federal court ruled that the judges in Munich had erred in convicting the woman of a “minor case” of crimes against humanity and overlooking aggravating circumstances.
German law allows for life imprisonment in cases where a suspect’s actions result in the death of a person.
At the trial in Munich, prosecutors accused the woman of watching as her then-husband chained the young Yazidi girl in a courtyard and left her to die of thirst. The court ruled that she did nothing to help the girl, although it would have been “possible and reasonable”.
She 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 national identified only as Taha Al-J., was convicted of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and bodily harm resulting in death by a court in Frankfurt in November 2021. He was sentenced to life imprisonment.
The girl’s mother, who survived captivity, testified at both trials.
German ISIS member originally sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2021 for her involvement in the death of a five-year-old Yazidi slave
German law allows for life imprisonment in cases where a suspect’s actions result in the death of a person
Following her conversion to Islam, Wenisch was recruited by the terrorist organization into the group’s self-proclaimed hisbah morality police in mid-2015. She patrolled city parks in IS-occupied Fallujah and Mosul armed with an AK-47 assault rifle, a handgun and an explosive vest.
She was instructed by the group to enforce strict IS rules on dress codes, public behavior, and a ban on alcohol and tobacco.
In January 2016, she visited the German embassy in Ankara to apply for new identity papers. When she left the mission, she was arrested and extradited to Germany days later.
Wenisch’s first trial began in April 2019 and is one of the first examples of court proceedings over the brutal treatment of Yazidis by the Islamic State group.
The Yazidis, a Kurdish-speaking group originating from northern Iraq, have been specifically attacked and repressed by the jihadists since 2015.
London-based human rights lawyer Amal Clooney – who was involved in a campaign to have ISIS crimes against the Yazidi community recognized as a “genocide” – was part of the team representing the Yazidi girl’s mother.
Germany has charged several German and foreign nationals with war crimes and crimes against humanity committed abroad, using the legal principle of universal jurisdiction, which allows crimes to be prosecuted even if committed abroad.