ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - German authorities detained an Iraqi couple suspected of being members of the Islamic State (ISIS) and accused of enslaving and sexually abusing two young Yazidi girls, prosecutors said on Wednesday.
The suspects, identified only as Twana H.S. and Asia R.A., were married under Islamic law and arrested in Bavaria on Tuesday “on suspicion of genocide, crimes against humanity, as well as membership in the foreign terrorist organization Islamic State,” Germany’s Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office said in a press release.
They are accused of holding a then five-year-old Yazidi girl as a slave and later a then twelve-year-old Yazidi girl as well between October 2015 and December 2017. During that period, “Twana H.S. repeatedly raped both children. To this end, Asia R.A. prepared the room and put make-up on one of the girls.”
The victims were further exploited into housework and childcare, were prohibited from practicing their faith, and were forced to partake in Islamic prayers and belief, prosecutors alleged.
In another heinous example of their actions, “Twana H. S. and Asia R. A. applied harsh physical violence to the detriment of the children in case of alleged mistakes. On one occasion, Twana H. S. hit the older girl with a broomstick. Asia R. A. scalded the younger girl’s hand with hot water and repeatedly forced both children to stand on one leg for a half hour each, as a form of punishment,” according to the prosecutors.
ISIS swept through vast swathes of Iraq and Syria in 2014 and declared a so-called “caliphate” in a brazen offensive that saw the group take control of around a third of Syria’s territory as well as several Iraqi cities, including the second largest northern city of Mosul. It was declared territorially defeated in 2017 and 2019 in both countries respectively.