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The defendant Jennifer W. holds a red folder in front of her face in court, on the right her lawyer Ali Aydin (archive photo)
Photo: Peter Kneffel / dpa
In the trial against the IS returnees and alleged terrorist Jennifer W., the federal prosecutor has demanded a life sentence. W. was responsible for the death of a five-year-old girl through inactivity, said Senior Public Prosecutor Claudia Gorf at the Munich Higher Regional Court. She is guilty of enslavement resulting in death, membership in a terrorist organization and war crimes, among other things.
W. has been on trial since April 2019. According to her own statement, the young woman from Lohne in Lower Saxony traveled to Iraq in 2014 to marry a fighter from the terrorist organization "Islamic State" (IS) there out of ideological conviction. According to the indictment, the couple bought a woman who belonged to the Yazidis religious community, which IS systematically persecuted, and her daughter as a slave. Mother and child were repeatedly exposed to beatings, humiliations and threats, as the mother had stated in the process.
In the summer of 2015, W. is said to have watched the little girl in Fallujah, Iraq, die unprotected in the blazing sun after her husband tied her up.
According to the prosecution, the five-year-old was sick and had gone to bed.
To be handcuffed to a window outside at 45 degrees was the punishment.
W. did nothing, although, unlike the slaves, she did not have to fear any abuse from her husband.
Defendants are said to have armed patrols in parks
To this day, the girl's mother is not only suffering from the loss of her daughter, but also from pain and has suffered a "deep wounding of the soul." "There can be no doubt about the responsibility for the daughter's death," said Chief Prosecutor Gorf. The Federal Prosecutor's office also regards it as proven that the defendant worked for the religious moral police of the IS and had armed patrols in parks. Through her actions she promoted the extermination campaign of the IS against the Yazidis.
Jennifer W. had been silent for a long time in the process, which had been going on for around two and a half years - until she commented on the allegations in March of this year. She stated that she wanted to help the girl. However, because of her husband, she did not dare. She only admitted membership in a terrorist organization. However, W's information was not credible and had many "logical breaks," said Gorf.
The defendants' defense attorneys had previously requested that additional witnesses be heard and evidence to be obtained.
Lawyer Seda Basay-Yildiz accused the court of ignoring W.'s testimony that a member of the husband's family had taken the suffering but still living child to a hospital.
This version is supported by the information provided by the girl's mother.
She also argued that according to a report from the Fallujah hospital, the death of the five-year-old could also be explained by an infection with typhoid or salmonella.
The court denied the request.
kfr / dpa