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3mo ago

German High Court Overturns Aiding-Genocide Count in ISIS Yazidi Slavery Case, Orders Resentencing

Germany’s top criminal court ruled the Koblenz judgment did not establish that the defendant aided genocide.

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Das Oberlandesgericht Koblenz muss neu über die Strafe für eine IS-Rückkehrerin verhandeln, die zusammen mit ihrem Mann im Irak und in Syrien eine jesidische Frau als Sklavin hielt. Das entschied der Bundesgerichtshof.

Overview

  • The Federal Court of Justice vacated the aiding‑genocide conviction but left findings for crimes against humanity and war crimes intact.
  • A new sentencing hearing will be held at the Higher Regional Court in Koblenz, to be conducted by a different senate.
  • The original total sentence was nine years and three months, and the court said a lower term cannot be ruled out after the partial reversal.
  • Judges in Koblenz had found the woman and her husband enslaved a Yazidi woman from 2016, forced her into housework, prevented escape, and that the husband repeatedly raped and beat her with the defendant’s knowledge.
  • The court noted the record supports that ISIS committed genocide against Yazidis, but it did not prove this defendant’s complicity; she joined ISIS in 2014 with her husband, was captured by Kurdish forces in 2019, and was arrested in Germany in 2022.