Overview
- The Higher Regional Court in Munich on Monday handed Twana HS a life sentence and Asia RA nine-and-a-half years after convicting them for crimes committed in ISIS-held areas between 2015 and 2017.
- Prosecutors found the pair enslaved two Yazidi girls, first a five-year-old and later a 12-year-old, and said the man repeatedly raped both while the woman prepared victims and took part in their abuse.
- Court testimony and evidence detailed repeated physical torture including beatings with a broom handle, scalding with hot water, forced punishments and ideological indoctrination of the children.
- German police arrested the couple in April 2024 in Regensburg and Roth, Bavaria, and they were tried on charges that included genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes under Germany’s universal jurisdiction rules.
- The case adds to a series of European prosecutions of ISIS-linked perpetrators and signals greater legal accountability for mass crimes against the Yazidi minority while offering a measure of recognition to survivors of sexual slavery.