German Court Secures First Ever Conviction For Islamic State group's Yazidi Genocide
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(OPINION) On Nov. 30, a court in Frankfurt, Germany, delivered a life sentence to a former Islamic State group fighter for genocide against the Yazidi minority — the first genocide conviction of an Islamic State group fighter in the world.
Germany began its first genocide trial involving an Islamic State group fighter in October 2019 after the accused — an Iraqi national, Taha al-Jumailly — was recently transferred from Greece to Germany to stand trial for a litany of crimes. The man, 27 at the time, stood accused of the crime of genocide and crimes against humanity. He was also facing accusations of war crimes and human trafficking for the purpose of forced labor.
Al-Jumailly is the husband of Jennifer Wenisch, a German citizen who was on trial before the Higher Regional Court of Munich for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed against members of the Yazidi community. Although al-Jumailly is not a German national, his victims are not German and his crimes have not been committed on Germany territory, German courts have jurisdiction over the crime of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity under the principle of universal jurisdiction.
According to the press statement, al-Jumailly joined the Islamic State group before March 2013. The allegations state that in the summer of 2015, al-Jumailly purchased and enslaved a five-year-old Yazidi girl and her mother. The couple kept the woman and girl enslaved in Fallujah, Iraq, and subjected them to forced conversion and physical abuse, including battery and starvation. Allegedly, al-Jumailly chained the girl outside and left her there to die of thirst.
Two years later, on Nov. 30 this year al-Jumailly was found guilty of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, aiding and abetting war crimes and bodily harm resulting in death.
The atrocities that al-Jumailly was involved in were a part of a larger campaign of atrocities perpetrated by the Islamic State group against Yazidis and other religious minorities in Iraq. The atrocities carried out by the group are recognized by international institutions, several parliaments and a few governments as genocide carried out by way of mass murder, torture, abuse, slavery, rape and sexual abuse, forced displacement and much more. Name a crime, the Islamic State group has been perpetrating it.
On May 10, as a United Nations investigative team updated the U.N. Security Council about the progress of investigations against Islamic State group fighters, Karim Khan, special adviser and head of the investigation, confirmed that “based on (its) independent criminal investigations, UNITAD has established clear and convincing evidence that genocide was committed by (the Islamic State group) against the Yazidi as a religious group.”
He further added that “the intent of (the Islamic State group) to destroy the Yazidi, physically and biologically, is manifest in its ultimatum — applied remorselessly to all members of their community — to convert or die.”
Lastly, he emphasized that these crimes are ongoing and, as such, require a comprehensive response. His investigation identified 1,444 suspected perpetrators responsible for the attacks against the Yazidis, including 14 members deemed most responsible for the atrocities classified as war crimes, crimes against humanity and even genocide. However, the road toward justice is a long one.
German courts have already handed down several convictions against Islamic State group fighters and women helping them for their involvement in crimes against humanity against the Yazidis. This is the first conviction for the Islamic State group genocide in Germany and in the world.
This piece was republished from Forbes with permission.
Ewelina U. Ochab is a legal researcher, human rights advocate, doctoral candidate and author of the book “Never Again: Legal Responses to a Broken Promise in the Middle East” and more than 30 U.N. reports. She works on the topic of the persecution of minorities around the world.