Iraqi couple found guilty of enslaving Yezidi girls by German court

An Iraqi couple has been convicted in Germany over the enslavement of two Yezidi girls and of membership in the Islamic State terror group.

The Munich Higher Regional Court on Monday found the couple guilty of perpetuating genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The husband was handed life imprisonment and his wife a youth sentence of nine and a half years.

The couple bought the two girls, aged 5 and 12, in Iraq in 2015 and 2017 respectively, holding them captive for years while subjecting them to forced labour, sexual abuse and torture before handing them over to other Islamic State members.

"The monstrous violence is so far removed from any sense of humanity that it seems unreal," a prosecutor said during the proceedings, which lasted more than a year.

She said the couple's acts had served Islamic State's aim of destroying the Yezidi faith.

The 30-year-old wife told the court she was "sorry" for the alleged offences, while her husband declined the opportunity to address the court ahead of the verdict.

In 2023, Germany recognized the atrocities committed by Islamic State against the Yezidi communities across Iraq and Syria in 2014 as genocide.

Yezidis were killed, trafficked, raped and abused by the militia, which aimed to eliminate the religious group indigenous to parts of Iraq, Syria, Turkey and Iran.