The Iraqi defendant, identified only as Taha al-J., an alleged Daesh member, hides his face while arriving into the courtroom on April 24, 2020 at the Higher Regional Court (OLG) in Frankfurt am Main. (AFP photo)
A man believed to have been a member of the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group has gone on trial in Germany for crimes against the Izadi minority group, as well as killing a five-year-old girl.
The 27-year-old Iraqi man, identified as Taha al-J, is accused of genocide, murder, war crimes and crimes against the Izadi Kurds.
He also stands accused of killing a little girl named Rania, whom he bought as a slave and chained to the window of a house where she lived with her mother, as "punishment" for having wet the bed.
Al-Js wife, a German woman named Jennifer Wenisch, has also been on trial separately since last April at a Munich court for murdering the child.
The little girl died of thirst after suffering in harsh temperatures as high as 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit).
Ranias mother, identified only by her first name Nora, has repeatedly testified in Munich about the torment her child had endured.
The mother and her five-year-old daughter had been kidnapped in the summer of 2014 after Daesh terrorist invaded the Sinjar region of Iraq.
German prosecutors say that the accused bought them as slaves at the end of May or beginning of June 2015.
They allege that he then took them to Fallujah, where they were seriously maltreated and at times deprived of food.
"Both were regularly beaten. The woman has suffered pain in her shoulder ever since. The child once had to stay in bed for four days after being beaten," chief prosecutor Anna Zadeck said on Friday.
Al-Js trial is being conducted in Frankfurt under heavy police guard. His case is expected to last until August.
He was arrested in Greece in May 2019, before being extradited to Germany in October, where he has since been held in pre-trial custody.
The Izadis, who are mostly based around the Sinjar Mountains in northern Iraq, are a religious sect whose beliefs combine elements of several ancient Middle Eastern religions.
Back in August 2014, Daesh terrorists overran Sinjar, killing, raping, and enslaving large numbers of Izadi Kurds.
The region was recaptured in November 2015, during an operation by Kurdish Peshmerga forces and Izadi fighters.
According to the United Nations, the killings of 1,280 Izadis and kidnappings of 6,400 more may have constituted genocide.
The Paris-based NGO International Federation for Human Rights said in a report on October 25, 2018, that foreign militants, including many of European origins, were responsible for atrocities and acts of brutality carried out by Daesh against Izadi Kurds.
Extremists from across Europe joined Daesh in droves in 2014, when the Takfiri terror group launched its campaign of death and destruction in Iraq and Syria.
Back then, many European leaders ignored repeated warnings that the militants could return home one day and that they would be a serious security challenge across the continent.
They instead allowed their nationals to join the Takfiri terror outfit in the hope that they would help topple Syrian President Bashar Assad.
SOURCE: PRESS TV
LINK: https://www.ansarpress.com/english/16337
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