War crimes in Iraq
She let a Yazidi girl die of thirst. Now IS returnees Jennifer W. has to be imprisoned for ten years
The 30-year-old Jennifer F. is accused of war crimes and aiding and abetting murder.
© Peter Kneffel / DPA
She is said to have pursued the brutal murder of a Yazidi child inactive. The Higher Regional Court in Munich accused the IS returnees, Jennifer W., of aiding and abetting murder and war crimes. A judgment has now been made.
In her terror trial before the Munich Higher Regional Court, ISIS returnees Jennifer W. was sentenced to ten years in prison. The court sentenced her on Monday for membership in a terrorist organization abroad, for aiding and abetting attempted murder, for attempted war crimes – and for crimes against humanity.
The young woman from Lohne in Lower Saxony has been charged with murder and war crimes before the Munich Higher Regional Court. As an IS supporter in Iraq, she is said to have watched while a little Yezidi girl was chained up in a courtyard and died of thirst there.
In mid-September, the federal prosecutor’s office had demanded a life sentence for the defendant. She was guilty of enslavement resulting in death, membership in a terrorist organization and war crimes, among other things. Her defense, however, called for a maximum of two years in prison. The 30-year-old may only be convicted of membership in a terrorist organization.
Five year olds should be punished
Jennifer W. herself made allegations against the judiciary. “The often quoted sentence ‘In case of doubt for the accused’ did not apply in my case,” she said in her closing remarks in front of the court. Apparently an example should be made of her for all injustice that had happened under the terrorist organization Islamic State (IS).
According to her own statement, she traveled to Iraq in 2014 to marry an IS fighter there out of ideological conviction. According to the indictment, in the summer of 2015 she watched a girl in Fallujah unprotected and exposed to the blazing sun without water. As a punishment for wetting the bed, her husband is said to have tied the five-year-old to a window grille. An excruciating torture which, according to the prosecution, led to death – and against which W. is said to have done nothing. The charge in the indictment was murder by omission.
The Lower Saxon finally apologized in her last word in court and referred to her ex-husband, who is on trial in Frankfurt am Main. But she was powerless to face the man’s actions and could not simply untie the girl.
Trial with celebrity
The trial of Jennifer W. made headlines in April 2019, also because an extremely prominent lawyer initially played a central role: the human rights expert and wife of actor George Clooney, Amal Clooney, who represents the co-plaintiff and mother of the girl who was killed, in court in But Munich never appeared. Before the trial, she issued a joint statement from the co-prosecution and the Yazidi organization Yazda: “Yazidi victims have been waiting far too long for their opportunity to testify in court.”
According to Yazda, the Munich trial was the world’s first indictment of crimes by ISIS members against the Yazidis religious minority. Yezidi and Nobel Peace Prize winner Nadia Murad called the trial a great moment and an important process for all Yazidi survivors. “Every survivor I spoke to is waiting for one and the same thing: that the perpetrators will be prosecuted and brought to justice for their actions against the Yazidis, especially women and children.”