Both have Iraqi nationality and were married according to Islamic law, as the German federal prosecutor’s office in Karlsruhe announced on Wednesday. They are said to have belonged to the jihadist militia Islamic State (IS) between 2015 and 2017.
Abuse and brutal punishments
They have been keeping a five-year-old girl as a slave since the end of 2015 at the latest. A twelve-year-old girl is said to have arrived in 2017. The man raped both children several times. His wife prepared the room and put make-up on one of the girls.
The girls had to do housework and child care “constantly,” it said. Alleged misconduct was responded to with physical violence. The older girl is said to have been beaten with a broomstick once. In addition, the smaller child’s hand was scalded with hot water and both girls were repeatedly forced to stand on one leg for half an hour each as punishment.
Arrested in custody ordered
The children were not allowed to practice their own religion. Instead, they had to follow Islamic prayers and religious rules, as the German federal prosecutor’s office said. Before leaving Syria in November 2017, the then couple passed the girls on to other IS members. All of this served IS’s stated goal of destroying the Yazidi faith.
According to the German Federal Prosecutor’s Office, the accused were arrested on Tuesday in Regensburg and the Roth district. The investigating judge at the German Federal Court of Justice ordered pre-trial detention. They are strongly suspected of genocide, crimes once morest humanity and war crimes and membership in IS.
