Taha Al-Jumailly, 29, was found guilty of genocide, crimes against humanity resulting in death, war crimes, aiding and abetting war crimes and bodily harm resulting in death, after joining the so-called Islamic State group in 2013, AFP reported.
Prosecutors said the ISIS member and his wife 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.
His wife, Jennifer Wenisch, a German national, was sentenced to 10 years in prison in October. She was found guilty of “two crimes against humanity in the form of enslavement”, as well as aiding and abetting the child’s death by failing to offer help.
The special advisor to the United Nations Investigative Team to Promote Accountability for Crimes Committed by Daesh (UNITAD), Christian Ritscher, welcomed the conviction on Tuesday.
“This conviction marks a significant moment in global efforts to deliver accountability for international crimes committed by ISIL, and in particular to achieving justice for the victims and survivors of the horrific acts they carried out against the Yazidi community. For the first time in a judicial judgement, we see these crimes called what they were: genocide,” Ritscher said.
“Victims have already waited so long but this provides hope of what can be achieved. I commend the work of the Office of the German Federal Prosecutor General, and all national prosecutors working towards this ultimate goal of pursuing accountability and achieving justice,” he added.
The Yazidi heartland of Shingal was taken over by ISIS when they swept through Iraq and neighbouring Syria, imposing their so-called caliphate rule with extreme brutality and violence. They systematically killed men and older women, and enslaved younger women and children.
In the first days of the genocide, 1,293 people were killed and over 6,000 people were abducted, according to the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Office for Rescuing Kidnapped Yazidis. Over 2,000 remain missing. Hundreds of thousands fled their homes, seeking shelter on Mount Shingal, and then later into camps in the Kurdistan Region or abroad.
UNITAD has previously said through their investigations they have “established clear and convincing evidence that genocide was committed by ISIL (ISIS) against the Yazidi as a religious group.”
Among the group’s recognized crimes are “executions, torture, amputations, ethno-sectarian attacks, rape and sexual slavery imposed on women and girls,” witness testimonies have revealed.
Iraq in 2017 asked the UN to help collect and preserve evidence of ISIS crimes. The UN Security Council in September renewed UNITAD’s mandate to investigate crimes committed by ISIS in Iraq for another year. The KRG welcomed the decision.
