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ISIS fanatic, 29, sentenced to life by German court for chaining up Yazidi girl, 5, in the sun and letting her die of thirst – Taha Al-Jumailly collapsed in court as he becomes first to be convicted for genocide against the Iraqi minority

&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"wpcnt">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"wpa">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<span class&equals;"wpa-about">Advertisements<&sol;span>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"u top&lowbar;amp">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<amp-ad width&equals;"300" height&equals;"265"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; type&equals;"pubmine"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; data-siteid&equals;"109460728"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; data-section&equals;"1">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;amp-ad>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;<h2 class&equals;"has-text-color has-normal-font-size wp-block-heading" style&equals;"color&colon;&num;564b4b"><strong>ISIS fanatic<&sol;strong> <strong>Taha Al-Jumailly&comma; 29&comma; was sentenced to life in a court in Frankfurt&comma; Germany&comma; Monday after being found guilty of genocide <&sol;strong><&sol;h2>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<h2 class&equals;"has-text-color has-normal-font-size wp-block-heading" style&equals;"color&colon;&num;564b4b"><strong>He becomes the first person to be convicted for genocide against the minority <&sol;strong><&sol;h2>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<h2 class&equals;"has-text-color has-normal-font-size wp-block-heading" style&equals;"color&colon;&num;564b4b"><strong>After hearing the verdict&comma; Al-Jumailly collapsed in the courtroom<&sol;strong><&sol;h2>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<h2 class&equals;"has-text-color has-normal-font-size wp-block-heading" style&equals;"color&colon;&num;564b4b"><strong>He was also found guilty of crimes against humanity&comma; war crimes&comma; aiding and abetting war crimes and bodily harm with fatal consequences <&sol;strong><&sol;h2>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<h2 class&equals;"has-text-color has-normal-font-size wp-block-heading" style&equals;"color&colon;&num;564b4b"><strong>Last month&comma; in separate trial&comma; his ex-wife Jennifer Wenisch was found guilty of allowing a slave girl to die of thirst<&sol;strong><&sol;h2>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<h2 class&equals;"has-text-color has-normal-font-size wp-block-heading" style&equals;"color&colon;&num;564b4b"><strong>She was sentenced to spend a decade in prison<&sol;strong><&sol;h2>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<h2 class&equals;"has-text-color has-normal-font-size wp-block-heading" style&equals;"color&colon;&num;564b4b"><strong>Wenisch&comma; 30&comma; converted to Islam in 2013 and went to Iraq to join ISIS<&sol;strong><&sol;h2>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<figure class&equals;"wp-block-image size-full is-resized"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;konniemoments&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2021&sol;11&sol;Taha-Al-Jumaill-4&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" class&equals;"wp-image-396550" width&equals;"842" height&equals;"472"&sol;><figcaption><strong>Taha Al-Jumailly&comma; 29&comma; &lbrack;photo&rsqb;&comma; was handed a life sentence after being found guilty of genocide&comma; crimes against humanity&comma; war crimes&comma; aiding and abetting war crimes and bodily harm with fatal consequences<&sol;strong><&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>An ISIS fanatic who chained up a five-year-old Yazidi girl in the sun and let her die of thirst as punishment for wetting the bed collapsed in a German court today after he was jailed for life for genocide&period; <br>Taha Al-Jumailly&comma; who covered his face with a folder at the Frankfurt court&comma; passed out as he became the first person in the world to be convicted of genocide against the minority&period;  <br>The 29-year-old Iraqi&comma; who was arrested in Greece in May 2019 and extradited to Germany that October&comma; was also found guilty of crimes against humanity resulting in death&comma; war crimes&comma; aiding and abetting war crimes and bodily harm resulting in death&period;<br>His German now ex-wife&comma; Jennifer Wenisch&comma; was arrested while trying to renew her identity papers at the German embassy in Ankara in 2016&comma; and deported back to Germany&period; She is on trial for murder&comma; war crimes and membership in a terrorist organization&period;<br>Al-Jumailly and Wenisch&comma; &&num;8216&semi;purchased&&num;8217&semi; a Yazidi woman and child as household &&num;8216&semi;slaves&&num;8217&semi; while living in then ISIS-occupied Mosul in 2015&period; <br>They later moved to Fallujah&period; While living there in the summer of 2015&comma; after a string of such abuses&comma; Al-Jumailly chained the five-year-old girl to a window outdoors in heat rising to 122°F &lbrack;50°C&rsqb;&comma; as a punishment for wetting her mattress&comma; leading her to die of thirst&period;  <br>The couple also forced her mother to walk barefoot on the scorching ground outside&comma; inflicting severe burns&comma; the prosecution claims&period; <br>Mother and daughter had been kidnapped in the summer of 2014 after ISIS invaded the Sinjar region of Iraq&period; <br>They were repeatedly sold on ISIS &&num;8220&semi;slave markets&&num;8221&semi;&comma; prosecutors say<br>Jennifer Wenisch last month&comma; was sentenced to 10 years in prison over the girl&&num;8217&semi;s death&period; The girl&&num;8217&semi;s mother&comma; who survived captivity&comma; testified at both trials&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<figure class&equals;"wp-block-video wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-videopress"><div class&equals;"wp-block-embed&lowbar;&lowbar;wrapper">&NewLine;<iframe title&equals;"VideoPress Video Player" aria-label&equals;'VideoPress Video Player' width&equals;'620' height&equals;'348' src&equals;'https&colon;&sol;&sol;videopress&period;com&sol;embed&sol;AcH5Ipnx&quest;cover&equals;1&amp&semi;preloadContent&equals;metadata&amp&semi;hd&equals;0' frameborder&equals;'0' allowfullscreen data-resize-to-parent&equals;"true" allow&equals;'clipboard-write'><&sol;iframe><script src&equals;'https&colon;&sol;&sol;v0&period;wordpress&period;com&sol;js&sol;next&sol;videopress-iframe&period;js&quest;m&equals;1674852142'><&sol;script>&NewLine;<&sol;div><figcaption><strong>Taha Al-Jumailly&comma; 29&comma; seen &lbrack;photo&rsqb;&comma; holding a folder over his face&comma; collapsed at the Frankfurt Higher Regional Court today after being found guilty of genocide<&sol;strong><&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Human rights lawyer Amal Clooney&comma; who has been involved in a campaign for ISIS crimes against the Yazidi to be recognized as a genocide&comma; was part of the team representing the Yazidi girl&&num;8217&semi;s mother but did not appear at court today&period; The Yazidis&comma; a Kurdish-speaking group hailing from northern Iraq&comma; have for years been persecuted by ISIS militants who have killed hundreds of men&comma; raped women and forcibly recruited children as fighters&period;<br>In May&comma; UN special investigators reported that they had collected &&num;8216&semi;clear and convincing evidence&&num;8217&semi; of genocide by ISIS against the Yazidis&period; <br>&&num;8216&semi;This is a historical moment for the Yazidi community&comma;&&num;8217&semi; Natia Navrouzov&comma; a lawyer and member of the NGO Yazda&comma; which gathers evidence of crimes committed by IS against the Yazidis&comma; told AFP ahead of the verdict&period; <br>&&num;8216&semi;It is the first time in Yazidi history that a perpetrator stands in a court of law for genocide charges&comma;&&num;8217&semi; she said&period; <br>The trial of Al-Jumailly&comma;&comma; who joined ISIS in 2013&comma; &&num;8216&semi;sends a clear message&&num;8217&semi;&comma; according to Navrouzov&period; <br>&&num;8216&semi;It doesn&&num;8217&semi;t matter where the crimes were committed and it doesn&&num;8217&semi;t matter where the perpetrators are&comma; thanks to the universal jurisdiction&comma; they can&&num;8217&semi;t hide and will still be put on trial&period;&&num;8217&semi; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<figure class&equals;"wp-block-image size-full is-resized"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;konniemoments&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2021&sol;11&sol;Taha-Al-Jumaill-3&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" class&equals;"wp-image-396534" width&equals;"843" height&equals;"671"&sol;><figcaption> <strong>Iraqi national Taha Al Jumailly&&num;8217&semi;s is <strong>seen covering his face<&sol;strong> as his trial began in Frankfurt&comma; Germany on April 24&comma; 2020&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<figure class&equals;"wp-block-image is-resized"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;konniemoments&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2021&sol;11&sol;Taha-Al-Jumaill-2-1&period;jpg" alt&equals;"This image has an empty alt attribute&semi; its file name is Taha-Al-Jumaill-2-1&period;jpg" width&equals;"840" height&equals;"516"&sol;><figcaption><strong>He was also seen covering his face as he was sent away for life on Nov 30&comma; 2021<&sol;strong><&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>It comes after Taha&&num;8217&semi;s ex-wife was sentenced to 10 years in prison by a Munich court last month in a separate trial over the war crime of letting the five-year-old Yazidi &&num;8216&semi;slave&&num;8217&semi; girl of thirst in the sun&period; <br>Jennifer Wenisch&comma; 30&comma; from Lohne in Lower Saxony&comma; who was a member of the ISIS hisbah or &&num;8216&semi;Morality Police&&num;8217&semi;&comma; was found guilty of &&num;8216&semi;two crimes against humanity in the form of enslavement&&num;8217&semi;&comma; as well as aiding and abetting the girl&&num;8217&semi;s killing and being a member of a terrorist organization&period; <br>Wenisch converted to Islam in 2013 and made her way to <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;dailymail&period;co&period;uk&sol;news&sol;iraq&sol;index&period;html">Iraq<&sol;a> to join the Islamic State&comma; where she and her husband &&num;8216&semi;purchased&&num;8217&semi; a Yazidi woman and child as household slaves according to the court&period; <br>&&num;8216&semi;After the girl fell ill and wet her mattress&comma; the husband of the accused chained her up outside as punishment and let the child die an agonizing death of thirst in the scorching heat&comma;&&num;8217&semi; prosecutors said during the trial&period;<br>&&num;8216&semi;The accused allowed her husband to do so and did nothing to save the girl&period;&&num;8217&semi; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<figure class&equals;"wp-block-image size-large"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;konniemoments&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2021&sol;11&sol;Jennifer-Wenisch-4-1024x581&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" class&equals;"wp-image-396527"&sol;><figcaption><strong>Jennifer Wenisch has finally been jailed for her role in the death of a 5-year-old enslaved Yazidi girl&comma; who died of thirst after being chained outside in the &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;scorching heat&period;”<&sol;strong><&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Her sentence&comma; handed out by the Higher Regional Court in Munich&comma; was the culmination of what is thought to be one of the first convictions anywhere in the world related to the Islamic State group&&num;8217&semi;s persecution of the Yazidi community&period; Presiding judge Reinhold Baier handed down the verdict to Wenisch&comma; after declaring the child was &&num;8216&semi;defenseless and helplessly exposed to the situation&comma;&&num;8217&semi; and that Wenisch &&num;8216&semi;had to reckon from the beginning that the child&comma; who was tied up in the heat of the sun&comma; was in danger of dying&&num;8217&semi;&period; <br>When asked during the trial about her failure to save the girl&comma; Wenisch said she was &&num;8216&semi;afraid&&num;8217&semi; that her husband would &&num;8216&semi;push her or lock her up&&num;8217&semi;&period; <br>Identified only by her first name Nora&comma; the Yazidi girl&&num;8217&semi;s mother has repeatedly testified in both Munich and Frankfurt about the torment allegedly visited on her child&period; <br>The defence had claimed the mother&&num;8217&semi;s testimony is untrustworthy and said there was no proof that the girl&comma; who was taken to hospital after the incident&comma; actually died&period;<br>Wenisch&&num;8217&semi;s lawyers had called for her to receive just a two-year suspended sentence for supporting a terrorist organization&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<figure class&equals;"wp-block-image size-full is-resized"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;konniemoments&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2021&sol;11&sol;Taha-Al-Jumailly-center-3&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" class&equals;"wp-image-396516" width&equals;"851" height&equals;"500"&sol;><figcaption> <strong> Jennifer Wenisch&comma; was found guilty of &&num;8216&semi;two crimes against humanity in the form of enslavement&&num;8217&semi;&comma; as well as aiding and abetting the girl&&num;8217&semi;s killing and being a member of a terrorist organization<&sol;strong><&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Wenisch herself claimed she was being &&num;8216&semi;made an example of for everything that has happened under ISIS&&num;8217&semi; at the close of the trial&comma; according to the daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung&comma; and appeared to show remorse for the crimes for which she was found guilty&period;  <br>Wenisch converted to Islam in 2013 and is thought to have left Germany to join ISIS the following year&comma; travelling through Turkey and Syria to reach her eventual destination of Mosul in Iraq&period; <br>Recruited in mid-2015 to the group&&num;8217&semi;s self-styled hisbah morality police&comma; she patrolled city parks in IS-occupied Fallujah and Mosul&period; <br>Armed with an AK-47 assault rifle&comma; a pistol and an explosives vest&comma; her task was to ensure strict ISIS rules on dress code&comma; public behavior and bans on alcohol and tobacco&period; <br>In January 2016&comma; she visited the German embassy in Ankara to apply for new identity papers&period; When she left the mission&comma; she was arrested and extradited days later to Germany&period; <br>Wenisch&&num;8217&semi;s trial&comma; which began in April 2019&comma; is one of the first examples of court proceedings over the Islamic State group&&num;8217&semi;s brutal treatment of Yazidis&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<figure class&equals;"wp-block-image size-full is-resized"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;konniemoments&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2021&sol;11&sol;Jennifer-Wenisch-3&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" class&equals;"wp-image-396519" width&equals;"840" height&equals;"544"&sol;><figcaption><strong>In a hearing prior to sentencing&comma; Wenisch&&num;8217&semi;s lawyers had called for her to receive just a two-year suspended sentence for supporting a terrorist organization<&sol;strong><&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<figure class&equals;"wp-block-video wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-videopress"><div class&equals;"wp-block-embed&lowbar;&lowbar;wrapper">&NewLine;<iframe title&equals;"VideoPress Video Player" aria-label&equals;'VideoPress Video Player' width&equals;'620' height&equals;'348' src&equals;'https&colon;&sol;&sol;videopress&period;com&sol;embed&sol;GiPLYbGc&quest;cover&equals;1&amp&semi;preloadContent&equals;metadata&amp&semi;hd&equals;0' frameborder&equals;'0' allowfullscreen data-resize-to-parent&equals;"true" allow&equals;'clipboard-write'><&sol;iframe><script src&equals;'https&colon;&sol;&sol;v0&period;wordpress&period;com&sol;js&sol;next&sol;videopress-iframe&period;js&quest;m&equals;1674852142'><&sol;script>&NewLine;<&sol;div><figcaption><strong>ISIS &&num;8216&semi;morality policewoman&&num;8217&semi; Jennifer Wenisch allegedly allowed Yazidi girl to die&comma; was on the radar of law enforcement and when&period; In January 2016&comma; she visited the German embassy in Ankara to apply for new identity papers&period; When she left the mission&comma; she was arrested and extradited days later to German <&sol;strong><&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>A Kurdish-speaking group hailing from northern Iraq&comma; the Yazidis were specifically targeted and oppressed by the jihadists beginning in 2015&period; <br>Germany has charged several German and foreign nationals with war crimes and crimes against humanity carried out abroad&comma; using the legal principle of universal jurisdiction which allows crimes to be prosecuted even if they were committed in a foreign country&period; <br>A handful of female suspects are among those who have appeared in the dock&period; <br>In November 2020&comma; a German woman named as Nurten J&period; was charged with crimes against humanity allegedly committed while she was living in Syria as a member of Islamic State&period; <br>In October 2020&comma; another German court sentenced the German-Tunisian wife of a rapper turned jihadist to 42 months in prison for having taken part in the enslavement of a Yazidi girl in Syria&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<figure class&equals;"wp-block-image is-resized"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;konniemoments&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2021&sol;11&sol;Taha-Al-Jumaill-2&period;jpg" alt&equals;"This image has an empty alt attribute&semi; its file name is Taha-Al-Jumaill-2&period;jpg" width&equals;"845" height&equals;"476"&sol;><figcaption><strong>Last month&comma; Al-Jumailly&&num;8217&semi;s ex-wife Jennifer Wenisch&comma; 30&comma; &lpar;pictured&rpar; covered her face as she was escorted into the courtroom where she was sentenced to 10 years in prison for allowing a 5-year-old slave girl to die of thirst in Iraq during a separate trial<&sol;strong><&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Driven from their homes&comma; slaughtered or sold as sex slaves &&num;8211&semi; the Yazidis suffered unspeakable horrors at the hands of ISIS thugs who considered them a race of &&num;8216&semi;devil worshippers&&num;8217&semi;&period; <br>Originally numbering around 550&comma;000 and based largely in northern Iraq&comma; the ethnic group came under attack by the extremists in 2014 with militants telling them they must embrace their radical version of Islam or die&period;  <br>Some 5&comma;000 were slaughtered by the jihadists while a further 7&comma;000 women and girls were taken as sex slaves&period;  <br>The genocide began with an attack on Sinjar City&comma; Iraq and neighboring towns on August 3&comma; 2014&period; <br>The people in the area attempted to defend themselves&comma; but ISIS fighters  shelled local fighters and eventually broke through – killing anyone caught outside&period; <br>The Shiite Zainab shrine in the city was destroyed and anyone resisting was executed – with those left alive forced to convert to Islam and swear their allegiance to the group&period; <br>Amidst the fighting&comma; some 200&comma;000 people are believed to have attempted to flee Sinjar City and the surrounding towns and villages&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<figure class&equals;"wp-block-image size-full is-resized"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;konniemoments&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2021&sol;11&sol;Yazidi-survivors-of-isis-captivity-1&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" class&equals;"wp-image-396540" width&equals;"837" height&equals;"550"&sol;><figcaption><strong>Yazidi survivors of ISIS captivity hold a candle-lighting ceremony for the Yazidi New Year&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<figure class&equals;"wp-block-image size-full is-resized"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;konniemoments&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2021&sol;11&sol;Yazidis-are-pictured-fleeing-ISIS-in-Sinjar-in-2014-1&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" class&equals;"wp-image-396520" width&equals;"848" height&equals;"546"&sol;><figcaption><strong>Yazidis are pictured fleeing ISIS in Sinjar in 2014&period; Some 5&comma;000 were massacred by the jihadists while thousands were taken as sex slaves<&sol;strong><&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Yazidis are ethnically Kurdish but adhere to a religion founded some 6&comma;000 years ago by an Ummayyad sheikh&period;<br>The religion&comma; while it predates Christianity and Islam&comma; incorporates elements of each&comma; as well as Zoroastrianism&comma; an ancient belief founded by an Iranian philosopher in around 6BC&period;<br>The Yazidis live in small communities mainly scattered through northwest Iraq&comma; north west Syria and south east Turkey&comma; although members are also found in Georgia and Armenia&period; <br>They follow a chief sheikh as their religious leader and an emir&comma; or prince&comma; as the secular head&period;<br>The religion is centered around worship of the fallen archangel Melek Tawwus&comma; or Peacock Angel&period;<br>But unlike Satan&&num;8217&semi;s fall from grace&comma; Melek Tawwus was readmitted into Heaven by God and represents humanity&&num;8217&semi;s potential for both good and evil&period;<br>For this reason&comma; the Yazidis have unfairly garnered a reputation as devil-worshippers among certain faiths&comma; and have faced centuries of alienation&comma; oppression and attempted extermination&period; Yazidis &&num;8211&semi; who do not believe in hell or evil &&num;8211&semi; deny they are&period;<br>Many Yazidi traditions are shrouded in such secrecy that most have never been witnessed by outsiders&period; Yazidis regard marriage outside their faith as a sin punishable by ostracism or even death to restore lost honor&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<figure class&equals;"wp-block-image size-large"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;konniemoments&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2021&sol;11&sol;Yazidi-in-ISIS-captivity-2-1024x677&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" class&equals;"wp-image-396542"&sol;><figcaption><strong>Yazidi refugees who escaped IS&comma; many on foot&comma; at the Newroz camp in Iraq&comma; Aug&period; 2020&period; Today Today&comma; more than 3&comma;000 enslaved Yazidi women and children in Iraq have been freed from IS captivity&comma; but life is far from normal<&sol;strong><&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Around 50&comma;000 Yazidis fled into the Sinjar Mountains&comma; where they were then trapped without food or water – with reports suggesting the group had been surrounded by ISIS&period; <br>Not all of the Yazidis in the area managed to escape to the mountains though&comma; and reports at the time suggested hundreds still remained in nearby villages&period; <br>Around 300 men were killed in Hardan&comma; 200 between Adnaniya and Jazeera and around 80 in Qiniyeh – while others were killed for refusing to convert to Islam&period; <br>Horrifying stories of atrocities emerged at the time&period; They included the recollections of Samo Ilyas Ali who described seeing women and children crying out for help while being buried alive by ISIS thugs&period;  <br>During the mountainous siege&comma; ISIS also captured around 7&comma;000 women and girls&comma; forcing them to become sex slaves&period; Any children that were captured were forcibly converted to Islam&comma; taught Arabic and were banned from speaking their native Kurdish&period; <br>ISIS militants consider the Yazidis infidels and subjected them to systematic killings&comma; rape&comma; and pillage&period;<br>In the summer of 2014&comma; ISIS killed hundreds&comma; possibly thousands&comma; of Yazidis&semi; more than fifty thousand survivors fled to Sinjar Mountain&comma; in the baking August heat&period; Thousands of Yazidis were subjected to inhumane treatment in ISIS captivity&comma; but as ISIS has lost territory&comma; international interest in them has faded&period;<br>More than 3&comma;000 enslaved Yazidi women and children in Iraq have been freed from IS captivity&comma; but life is far from normal&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<figure class&equals;"wp-block-image size-full is-resized"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;konniemoments&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2021&sol;11&sol;Yazidi-mass-grave-in-Sinjar&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" class&equals;"wp-image-396544" width&equals;"838" height&equals;"555"&sol;><figcaption><strong>March 15&comma; 2019&colon;<&sol;strong> <strong>Exhuming a mass grave in Iraq’s northwestern region of Sinjar&comma; where the assault of the Yazidis by ISIS occurred in <&sol;strong><&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>The United Nations described the massacres of the Yazidis as genocide with UN investigators estimating that more than 5&comma;000 Yazidis were rounded up and slaughtered in the 2014 attack&period;<br>In 2018&comma; the UN reported that more than 200 mass graves containing 12&comma;000 bodies&comma; including women&comma; children and the disabled&comma; had been found in Iraq since Islamic State&&num;8217&semi;s brutal three-year reign&period;<br>UN investigators verified 202 graves in northern Iraq as a &&num;8216&semi;legacy of Isil&&num;8217&semi;s terror&&num;8217&semi;&comma; according to a joint report by the UN mission to Iraq and UN office for human rights&period;<br>The graves date from 2014 to 2017 when ISIS ruled some of Iraq&&num;8217&semi;s largest cities and towns&period;<br>Investigations have documented horrific accounts of abuse suffered by women and girls&period;<br>Having taken around 7&comma;000 women and girls&comma; initially&comma; many of the women and children were handed out as gifts to fighters who took part in the offensive&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<figure class&equals;"wp-block-image size-full is-resized"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;konniemoments&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2021&sol;11&sol;Lamiya-Haji-Bashar-1&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" class&equals;"wp-image-396522" width&equals;"585" height&equals;"858"&sol;><figcaption><strong> Lamiya Haji Bashar&comma; who at one time&comma; was threatened with having her foot chopped off or execution after attempting to flee from her captors<&sol;strong><&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>According to the Commission for International Justice and Accountability&comma; ISIS’s &&num;8216&semi;cabinet&&num;8217&semi; reportedly constructed a slave system&comma; enforced by security agencies&comma; under the supervision of Islamic courts&period; <br>The group operated centralized slave markets in Mosul&comma; Raqqa and other cities&period; <br>At the market in the Syrian city of Palmyra&comma; women walked a runway for ISIS members to bid on&period; Others distributed the women by lottery&period; <br>Managing the robust system turned out to be difficult&comma; however&period; <br>Slaves were resold for personal profit&period; Some ISIS members made tens of thousands of dollars ransoming captives back to their families&period; <br>ISIS officials tried banning separating women from their children and the posting of women&&num;8217&semi;s pictures on social media&period; They ruled slave sales must be registered by an Islamic court&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<figure class&equals;"wp-block-image size-full is-resized"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;konniemoments&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2021&sol;11&sol;Iraqs-security-forces-holds-out-a-skull-1&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" class&equals;"wp-image-396525" width&equals;"837" height&equals;"535"&sol;><figcaption><strong>A member of Iraq&&num;8217&semi;s security forces holds out a skull as he and his comrade cover their noses from the stench at a mass grave uncovered in the Hamam al-Alil area in November 2016<&sol;strong><&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>One woman&comma; Taloo – who wanted her name known publicly as she campaigns for justice for Yazidis – said one owner forced her to get pregnant&comma; before changing his mind and forcing her to have an abortion&period; <br>She only managed to escape&comma; taking her daughter and sister-in-law with her&comma; by paying a smuggler&period; <br>Nobel peace prize winner Nadia Murad has previously spoken about her own experiences at the hands of ISIS sex traffickers&period; <br>Writing in her autobiography&comma; she said&colon; &&num;8216&semi;We could hear the commotion downstairs where militants were registering and organizing&comma; and when the first man entered the room&comma; all the girls started screaming&period;&&num;8217&semi; <br>The entrance of the men would terrify the women who&comma; Ms Murad says &&num;8216&semi;would double over and vomit on the floor&&num;8217&semi;&period; They would then ask if the women were virgins to which the vendor would reply &&num;8216&semi;of course&&num;8217&semi;&period; <br>She said&colon; &OpenCurlyQuote;The militants touched us anywhere they wanted&comma; running their hands over our breasts and our legs&comma; as if we were animals&period;&&num;8217&semi; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<iframe width&equals;"560" height&equals;"315" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;youtube&period;com&sol;embed&sol;CqB0cMvGnIk" title&equals;"YouTube video player" frameborder&equals;"0" allow&equals;"accelerometer&semi; autoplay&semi; clipboard-write&semi; encrypted-media&semi; gyroscope&semi; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen><&sol;iframe>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p class&equals;"has-small-font-size"><strong>Nadia Murad gives her Nobel Peace Prize lecture 2018 <&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Murad had found herself at the hands of ISIS sex traffickers after her home village of Kocho in Sinjar&comma; northern Iraq&comma; was attacked&period;<br>She was captured alongside her sisters and lost six brothers and her mother&period;<br>Eventually she was able to escape her ISIS captors&comma; smuggling herself out of Iraq &&num;8211&semi; she later went as a refugee to Germany in early 2015&period;<br>Elsewhere&comma; in 2018&comma; an Iraqi politician claimed that a Yazidi sex slave unwittingly ate her one-year-old son after ISIS fanatics cooked the child and served it with rice after starving her for three days&period;<br>The starving woman had been kept captive in a cellar for days without food or water before she was tricked by her guards&comma; according to MP Vian Dakhill&period;<br>During a harrowing television interview&comma; Dakhill told Egyptian TV channel Extra News&colon; &&num;8216&semi;One of the women whom we managed to retrieve from ISIS said that she was held in a cellar for three days without food or water&period; &&num;8216&semi;<br>Afterwards&comma; they brought her a plate of rice and meat&period; She ate the food because she was very hungry&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<figure class&equals;"wp-block-image size-full is-resized"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;konniemoments&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2021&sol;11&sol;Nadia-Murad-1&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" class&equals;"wp-image-396526" width&equals;"843" height&equals;"632"&sol;><figcaption><strong>Human rights activist&comma; Nadia Murad seen addressing the U&period;N&period; &lbrack;photo&rsqb;&comma; was captured by ISIS sex traffickers when her home village of Kocho in Sinjar&comma; northern Iraq&comma; was attacked<&sol;strong><&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>&&num;8216&semi;When she was finished they said to her&colon; &&num;8220&semi;We cooked your one-year-old son that we took from you&comma; and this is what you just ate&&num;8221&semi;&period;&&num;8217&semi; <br>Dakhill also revealed that one little girl&comma; aged just ten&comma; had been raped to death before her father and five sisters&period; <br>&&num;8216&semi;One of the girls said that they took six of her sisters&comma;&&num;8217&semi; she said&period; &&num;8216&semi;Her younger sister&comma; a ten-year-old girl&comma; was raped to death in front of her father and sisters&period; She was ten-years-old&period;&&num;8217&semi;  <br>Another harrowing account belongs to Lamiya Haji Bashar&comma; who at one time&comma; was threatened with having her foot chopped off or execution after attempting to flee from her captors&period; <br>During her time trapped in the ISIS heartland of Syria and northern Iraq&comma; Lamiya saw children sold to old men as sex slaves&comma; and she was forced to help make suicide bombs&period; <br>At one point Lamiya was thrown into a room to be gang-raped by 40 fanatics&comma; and after&comma; she and one of her sisters were sold to different fighters&comma; fetching about £100 each&period; <br>Eventually&comma; after multiple escape attempts&comma; Lamiya was kept by a surgeon&comma; who made her run errands in his hospital&period; She was given a mobile phone so that he could summon her – but Lamiya used it to contact an uncle in Kurdistan&period; <br>At that point&comma; she was being held close to the Kurdish front line&comma; and her uncle paid a smuggler &dollar;7&comma;500 &lpar;about £6&comma;100&rpar; to get her out&period;  <br>In the summer of 2017&comma; Iraqi forces finally drove ISIS out of Mosul and most of northern Iraq&period; But for the Yazidis&comma; a long persecuted religious and ethnic minority who practice a faith with pre-Zoroastrian roots and Islamic and Christian influences&comma; stability remains a distant and elusive prospect&period; <br><br><&sol;p>&NewLine;

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