ISIS bride let slave girl, 5, die of thirst next to crying mother

29 August 2023 , 11:55

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Defendant Jennifer Wenisch arrives in a courtroom for her trial in Munich (Image: AP)

An ISIS bride who joined the Islamic State and chained up a five-year-old slave girl - leaving her to die of thirst - has been jailed for 14 years.

Jennifer Wenisch, 32, and her then-husband, an ISIS fighter, had exploited the young Yazidi and her mum as household slaves. A court heard Wenisch moved from Germany to join ISIS and "acted out of contempt for fellow human beings," including the youngster. The girl was left chained up in the baking Iraq heat. After she died, Wenisch put a gun to the slave mother's head and threatened to shoot her in an attempt to stop her crying.

The defendant was found guilty of enslavement, in one case resulting in death, being an accessory to attempted murder and membership in a terrorist organisation abroad in October 2021. Since then, Germany's Federal Court of Justice threw out her appeal. She was handed a 14-year jail term at the Higher Regional Court in Munich.

The 32-year-old woman hides her face as she's ushered into the courtroom (DPA/AFP via Getty Images)

Wenisch's husband, an Iraqi citizen who was identified only as Taha Al-J, was convicted by a Frankfurt court in November 2021 of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and bodily harm resulting in death. He was sentenced to life imprisonment. The girl's brave mother survived captivity and testified at both trials.

Wenisch was taken into custody while trying to renew her identity papers at the German Embassy in Ankara in 2016, and deported to Germany. The thug had left Germany for Iraq in August 2015, following her conversion to Islam and recruitment by the terrorist organisation.

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The trial heard she patrolled city parks in IS-occupied Fallujah and Mosul, armed with an AK-47 assault rifle, a pistol, and an explosives vest. The defendant was tasked by the group to ensure strict ISIS rules on dress code, public behaviour, and bans on alcohol and tobacco. Wenisch's initial trial began in April 2019, and is one of the first examples of court proceedings over the Islamic State group's brutal treatment of Yazidi.

London-based human rights lawyer Amal Clooney - who was involved in a campaign for ISIS crimes against the Yazidi community to be recognised as a "genocide" - was part of the team representing the mother.

Bradley Jolly