Former Islamic State Member Found Guilty of Genocide in German Court

In the case of Taha A.-J., there is another unusual feature: The Iraqi man was not even on German soil when he was arrested. The federal prosecutor had him arrested in Greece and extradited to Germany.

For international law expert Alexander Schwarz, the trial demonstrates “Germany’s willingness to actually prosecute crimes against international law worldwide and not stop at national borders.”

The trial has assumed enormous importance, not only for Nora T., but  — like the trial of Jennifer W.  — for Yazidis in general. The religious group The terrorist militia IS branded the Yazidis as “infidels” and “devil worshippers” – and in 2014 systematically hunted them down.

According to United Nations estimates, 7000 Yazidi women and children were enslaved and sold by IS and many remain missing.

For Nora T., all that remains of her family is one son. She lives with him in a secret location in Germany, under a witness protection program, and is supported by human rights lawyer Amal Clooney and represented by German lawyer Natalie von Wistinghausen.

Genocide or Accident?
How could the death of the girl be genocide? The answer: If it can be proven that the way Taha A.-J. treated Nora T. and her daughter was part of an IS plan to destroy the Yazidi religious community.

“Genocide is the most serious crime under international law. But at the same time, genocide is the criminal offense which is the hardest to prove,” international law expert Schwarz told DW. 

“That is because you need to prove that the perpetrator had the intent; you have to prove that he was really subjectively concerned with destroying the religious community of the Yazidis.”

The need to prove intention has made the case particularly complicated. 

“Of course, there was no explicit explanation in the evidence. We have no diary entries from him, we have no public statements where he talked about destroying the Yazidis,” said Schwarz. “The court is faced with the task of deducing from his actions that he was concerned with precisely this destruction.” It is difficult to see into the defendant’s head and determine his motives. Almost nothing is known about the 29-year-old, not even exactly what role the wiry man played in IS.

The defense has tried to distance their client as much as possible from the “Islamic State’s” organized campaign of destruction against the Yazidis: The girl’s mother was merely a domestic helper for him. The girl’s death could also have been due to a preexisting condition. Children in Iraq are used to hot temperatures. “The child’s death was a terrible accident, which he certainly did not want,” said the defense lawyer according to German news agency DPA.

A Murder Trial with No Body
The accident theory is supported by the fact that Taha A.-J. took the Yazidi girl directly to a local hospital. The defense has even cast doubt on whether the child had in fact died.

In May, citing an employee of the Fallujah hospital and a distant uncle of the defendant, the defense told the court that Rania had been cared for in the hospital for a week

Then a man from IS is said to have taken her away. Today she lives in Idlib, in northern Syria, the defense says while admitting evidence of this is difficult to obtain.

This detail demonstrates how difficult and complex it is to conduct such trials far away from the crime scene. 

The federal prosecutors’ office has sifted through and collected evidence of crimes against international law by IS for years in what are known as structural investigations. 

This article, written with additional reporting from Matthias von Hein, is published courtesy of Deutsche Welle (DW).