The court sentenced the husband, identified as H. S. Twana, to life imprisonment, while his wife, Asia R. A., received a prison sentence of nine years and six months.
The verdict followed a trial that lasted approximately one and a half years before the German judiciary. According to the court and the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office, the crimes were committed between 2015 and 2017.
During that period, the couple held two Yezidi girls, aged 5 and 12, in ISIS-controlled areas, where they were subjected to enslavement, forced labor, and ideological indoctrination.
The court found that the girls were repeatedly subjected to sexual abuse and physical torture, including beatings and being scalded with boiling water. Investigators determined that the wife facilitated the commission of some of these crimes.
Court proceedings revealed that the couple fled Iraq for Germany in late 2017 and applied for asylum after transferring the girls to other ISIS members, resulting in their continued enslavement.
German authorities arrested the couple in April 2024 in the Bavarian cities of Regensburg and Roth.
The court rejected the defense's argument that the wife had been forced into marriage and had no ties to ISIS, concluding that she bore criminal responsibility for the offenses.
The ruling is regarded as one of the most significant judgments issued in Germany against former ISIS members and highlights ongoing international efforts to prosecute perpetrators of genocide and crimes against humanity, particularly those responsible for atrocities committed against the Yezidi community in Iraq.
ISIS's crimes in Iraq extended beyond the Yezidis. The group also carried out mass atrocities against the Chaldean--Syriac--Assyrian people in Nineveh Plains, particularly in Mosul, resulting in the displacement of thousands and the destruction of cultural and religious heritage sites across Beth Nahrin (Mesopotamia), including the ancient Assyrian city of Nimrud and its palaces and archaeological treasures.
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