German woman accused of crimes against humanity in Iraq faces retrial

A new trial against a German Islamist extremist accused of letting a 5-year-old Yezidi girl die was set to begin on Wednesday in a Munich court, reported dpa.

The woman, named only as Jennifer W under German privacy laws, allegedly stood idly by in Iraq while a young Yazidi girl died in the midday heat.

The woman may face a longer period in prison after an appeals court ruled in March that a 10-year sentence handed to her in 2021 was too lenient. The Munich Higher Regional Court has now scheduled eight days of hearings before a different criminal senate for the new trial.

The defendant joined Islamic State at the age of 23, marrying in Syria at a time when the terrorist organization had occupied a large swathe of eastern Syria and north-western Iraq.

Her former husband, who chained up the girl in the courtyard of their home, is serving a life sentence in Germany after being found guilty of genocide by a Frankfurt court. That sentence has been confirmed by the Karlsruhe court.

The man bought the girl and her mother after they had been abducted by Islamic State – a fate suffered by many Yezidis.

The girl died in August 2015, as the temperature in Falluja soared above 50 degrees Celsius. The man had chained her to the bars of a window by her hands with her feet hanging in the air and she suffered heat stroke before he unchained her.

The German courts found that Jennifer W had failed to act to save the girl.

A new verdict could be handed down on 29 August. The first trial started in April 2019 and lasted about two and a half years.