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Kurdistan
Taha Al-Jumailly holds up a file to cover his face during his trial at the Higher Regional Court in Frankfurt, Germany. Date: November 30, 2021. Photo: AFP
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Kurdistan Region president and prime minister on Wednesday welcomed the sentencing of an Islamic State (ISIS) member by a German court on the previous day to life imprisonment on charges of crimes against the Yazidis.
A court in Frankfurt sentenced Taha Al-Jumailly, 29, to life imprisonment after he was found guilty of genocide, crime against humanity resulting in death, war crimes, aiding and abetting war crimes and bodily harm resulting in death after joining ISIS in 2013. Prosecutors said the ISIS member and his wife, Jennifer Wenisch, enslaved a Yazidi woman and child. The child was then chained in the sun where she died of thirst in the heat of Fallujah in Anbar province.
“We welcome the sentencing of ISIS terrorist by German court for genocide against Yezidis, and support similar legal actions against members of the terrorist group worldwide. We hope this step contributes to achieving more justice for Yezidi victims and all victims of terrorism,” said President Nechirvan Barzani in a tweet.
PM Masrour Barzani also welcomed the decision, saying “the verdict is a historic precedent and gives the global Yazidi community and survivors recourse to justice and recovery.”
ISIS swept across Iraq and Syria in the summer of 2014. More than 6,000 Yazidis were kidnapped when the group attacked their heartland of Shingal in Nineveh province, according to the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Office for Rescuing Kidnapped Yazidis. Over 2,000 people remain missing.
Free Yezidi Foundation (FYF), which advocates for the rights of Yazidis, also welcomed the German court decision, saying the ruling was a “a significant victory in our ongoing battle for justice.”
“The horrific crimes committed by this ISIS member have been recognised and met with appropriate punishment,” it added.
Wenisch, a German national, was sentenced to 10 years in prison in late October. She was found guilty of “two crimes against humanity in the form of enslavement”, as well as aiding and abetting the Yazidi child’s death by failing to offer help. She was taken into custody in 2016 while she was trying to renew her papers at the German embassy in Ankara.
Amnesty International criticized Iraqi government on November 2 saying it had “largely ignored the significant recommendations made by Iraqi civil society organizations on the regulations, meaning they lack a survivor-centred approach and fail to establish accountable mechanisms and processes for outreach, applications and review of claims.”
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