Germany Conducts Its First Genocide Trial Of A Daesh Fighter

[TomSea]

Oct 24, 2019, 03:10pm
Germany Conducts Its First Genocide Trial Of A Daesh Fighter
Ewelina U. Ochab   Contributor
Policy

Germany has began its first genocide trial involving a Daesh fighter. The hearing began on October 10, 2019. The accused is an Iraqi national, Taha A.-J., who was recently transferred from Greece to Germany to stand trial for a litany of crimes. The 27-year-old man stands accused of the crime of genocide and crimes against humanity. He is also facing accusations of war crimes and human trafficking for the purpose of forced labor.

Taha A.-J. is the husband of Jennifer W., a 28-year-old German citizen who is currently on trial before the Higher Regional Court of Munich for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed against members of the Yazidi community. Although Taha A.-J. is not a German national, his victims are not German and his crimes have not been committed on Germany territory, German courts have jurisdiction over the crime of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity under the principle of universal jurisdiction. Both accused face life sentence if convicted.

According to the press statement, Taha A.-J. joined Daesh before March 2013. The allegations state that in the summer of 2015, Taha A.-J. and Jennifer W. “purchased” and enslaved a five-year-old Yazidi girl and her mother. The couple kept the woman and girls enslaved in Fallujah, Iraq, and subjected them to forced conversion and physical abuse including battery and starvation. Allegedly, Taha A.-J. chained the girl outside and left her there to die of thirst.

Continued at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/ewelinaochab/2019/10/24/germany-conducts-its-first-genocide-trial-of-a-daesh-fighter/#245eceb66cd2