Iraqi couple Twana H.S. and his wife, Asia R. A. arrested in Bavaria in 2024 for enslaving and abusing two Yazidi girls aged five and 12

Court in Munich in on Monday, sentenced Twana H.S. to life imprisonment on charges including genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, and severe sexual abuse of children

His wife, Asia R. A., was handed a juvenile sentence of nine and a half years

Twana H. S. and Asia R. A. were married there according to Islamic law and became members of Islamic State between October 2015 and December 2017

In the autumn of 2015, Twana H. S. bought a five-year-old Yazidi girl as a slave at a bazaar in Mosul, at the request of his wife

Couple then bought a twelve-year-old Yazidi girl, in early October 2017

Twana H. S. “repeatedly raped both children,” prosecutors said

Twana HS was sentenced to life imprisonment on Monday by a court in Munich following his conviction on genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, and severe sexual abuse of children.

A court in Germany has convicted an Iraqi couple of enslaving two Yazidi girls in Iraq.
The Munich Higher Regional Court also found them guilty of membership of the Islamic State group (IS).
The man, named only as Twana H.S. in line with German privacy rules, was sentenced to life imprisonment on charges including genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, and severe sexual abuse of children.
His wife, Asia R. A., was sentenced to nine and a half years in prison. The couple was arrested in Bavaria in 2024.
The Yazidi, a Kurdish-speaking minority, were persecuted by IS after the jihadist group seized large swathes of territory in Syria and Iraq beginning in 2014.
Thousands of men were killed and women and children were enslaved and raped when IS fighters stormed into the ancestral heartland of the Yazidi in northern Iraq.
Germany recognizes these acts as genocide. The Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office accused the two defendants of having been part of this systematic campaign, “the Islamic State’s objective to destroy the Yazidi religion.”
Twana H.S. first came to Germany in the early 2000’s as an asylum seeker. He worked in Munich as a hairdresser and had a child. Ultimately he was denied asylum but was given permission to stay as the parent of German child.
After becoming radicalized at a Munich mosque, he returned to Iraq in 2015, German outlet, Der Spiegel, reports.

Married in Iraq, Asia R. A. [covering her face in court], and Twana H.S. became members of Islamic State between 2015 and 2017. Not only did she condone her husband’s abuse of the minor girls, she physically abused the children herself. She was sentenced to nine and a half years in prison

Twana H. S. bought a five-year-old Yazidi girl as a slave at a bazaar in Mosul, at the request of his wife.The couple bought a twelve-year-old Yazidi girl, in early October 2017. He was accused of ‘raping the five and twelve girls repeatedly’

Prosecutors say Twana H. S. and Asia R. A. were married there according to Islamic law and became members of Islamic State between October 2015 and December 2017.
They said that in the autumn of 2015, Twana H. S. bought a five-year-old Yazidi girl as a slave at a bazaar in Mosul, at the request of his wife.
The couple bought a twelve-year-old Yazidi girl, in early October 2017.
Prosecutors said Twana H. S. “repeatedly raped both children.”
They said his wife “put make-up on one of the girls” and prepared the room for him.
The couple were accused of forcing them to do household work and childcare, and forbade them to practice their own religion.
The children were beaten, sometimes with solid objects, bothe repeatedly punished by being forced to stand on one leg for extended periods of time.
On one occasion, Asia R. A. “scalded the younger girl’s hand with hot water,” prosecutors said.
During the trial, the court heard harrowing testimony from the eldest Yazidi girl, who described beatings, forced labor and repeated rapes. The five-year-old is still missing, it said.
After ISIS lost territory towards the end of 2017, the defendants fled the region but did not release the two girls.
Instead, they handed them over to other members of the terror organization.
It wasn’t until years later they were arrested in Germany. Asia R.A. was arrested in Regensburg, while Twana H.S. was apprehended in the town of Roth, both in the southern state of Bavaria.
The pair stood trial in Germany because of the legal principle of universal jurisdiction, which allows prosecutions for alleged war crimes, including genocide, occurring overseas.
While Twana H.S. declined to testify in his defense, during the trial, Asia R.A , who is now separated from Twana H.S., apologized for her actions. She ended her statement with “I’m sorry”.