German police have arrested an Iraqi couple alleged to be Islamic State members, on suspicion of genocide and crimes against humanity for enslaving two Yazidi girls, federal prosecutors said on Wednesday.
Twana H. S. and Asia R. A., whose surnames were not released under German privacy law, were arrested on Tuesday for their treatment of the girls between 2015 and 2017 in Iraq and Syria.
Prosecutors said the girls were physically abused, repeatedly raped and banned from practicing their religion. The couple handed the girls to other IS members before leaving Syria in November 2017, said prosecutors in a statement.
“All of this served the organization’s objective to destroy the Yazidi religion,” they added.
German prosecutors have used universal jurisdiction laws that allow them to prosecute crimes against humanity committed anywhere in the world to bring such cases to trial.
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