Jennifer Wenisch, a German woman who joined the Islamic State group (ISIS), was accused of enslaving a five-year-old Yazidi girl and her mother. According to court documents, Wenisch chained the girl to a window in the summer of 2015. The child died in the heat.
Wenisch was found guilty of “two crimes against humanity in the form of enslavement” and aiding and abetting the child’s death by failing to offer help, AFP reported. Her husband, identified as Taha al-J, is also facing charges of mass murder, crimes against humanity, and war crimes.
Wenisch traveled through Turkey to join ISIS in 2014, according to German media. She joined the religious police, al-Hisbah, and monitored women to ensure they followed the terror group’s strict codes of behavior and dress.
She was taken into custody in 2016 while she was trying to renew her papers at the German embassy in Ankara.
ISIS swept across Iraq and Syria in the summer of 2014. Minority groups especially suffered under the terror group's rule, including Yazidis, Shabaks, and Christians. A United Nations investigation found there is evidence ISIS committed genocide against the Yazidis.
Wenisch’s trial is one of several against ISIS women accused of holding Yezidi slaves in Iraq and Syria. Last year, a German court sentenced Omaima Abdi to three-and-a-half years in prison. She was found guilty of being a member of ISIS and enslaving a child.
More than 6,000 Yazidis were kidnapped when ISIS attacked their heartland of Shingal in Nineveh province, according to the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Office for Rescuing Kidnapped Yazidis. Over 2,000 remain missing.
Updated at 1:27pm
