German mum sentenced to more than nine years in prison after she kept Yazidi woman as a slave

A court in Germany has sentenced a 37-year old woman to nine years and three months in jail for her role in committing genocide against the Yezidi people and war crimes.

In a landmark case the accused, known as “Nadine K”, was found guilty of enslaving and abusing a 22-year-old Yazidi woman for five years when she was a member of ISIS.

The Yezidi woman – who managed to escape the clutches of the terror group, and whose testimony was at the heart of the prosecution’s case against the accused – has spoken to Sky News exclusively about her ordeal.

For the first time we can reveal the harrowing and courageous story of Naveen Rasho, who faced her captor in court and delivered evidence that led to the conviction.

In an interview from her home in northern Iraq, Naveen described the violent conditions she lived in.

“We saw everything from beating to fear,” she said.

“They said to us that you need to change your religion and start praying and fasting. Whatever the Muslims do, you need to do it too like reading Quran and memorising it. They were very difficult with us.

“It was very difficult. I would go to sleep very late once I finished the house chores or anything else. I would wake up early.

“The German woman was like a guest. I would do all her work and even look after her children. The room that she slept in, she would not clean it.”

The accused is believed to have travelled to Syria in 2014 to join the Islamic State group, along with her husband who is in prison in northeast Syria. He worked as a doctor for IS while she looked after the household, two daughters and the women they captured.

They moved, with Naveen, between Iraq and Syria as the fighting continued and coalition forces started to recapture land and defeat the terror organisation. They took the Yazidi woman with them and tried to force her to abandon her faith.

The couple were eventually arrested by Kurdish forces in March 2019 and Nadine K was extradited back to Germany in 2021.

‘I cried… watching Naveen relive the horrors’

The Yazidi captive was eventually released and made it to safety after making herself known to a Scottish man, called Alan Duncan, in the al Hol camp in Syria.

Speaking to Sky News, Mr Duncan said: “I have been following Naveen on this journey for the last four years, from the moment we found her in the al Hol camp and freed her from ISIS.

“I cried as I sat in the courtroom watching Naveen relive the horrors that she was put through.

“She had to recount intimate details to a foreign court, in front of people she didn’t know, in a language she couldn’t understand.

“She, like so many other survivors, never gave up hope. I hope this trial is a step towards closure.”

Naveen also explained how, after so many years in ISIS captivity, she was too worried to reveal herself to Alan and his team.

“I was frightened,” she said.

“A few times Alan and his translator came to the camp. I thought maybe the translator would get me to my family but I just did not dare to approach him.

“I finally dared and told the translator that there is a Yazidi woman and wants to go to her people and family. I did not dare to say it was me.

“I said if he could offer help. Alan said he would help. I did not say to them it was me and told them to come back two days later.

“I was scared. Then they went and sat down with the Daesh women in the tent for their job. I went and sat with them. I said this was an opportunity and told them I was Yazidi.”

The witness, whose mother died while she was in captivity, gave evidence at the trial in Germany, to face down her former captor.

“I saw a lot at the hands of Daesh,” she said. “I want to see that day when I face that Daesh because I saw a lot of torture and difficulty at her hand. The same way I was in prison because of her, she would be in prison too.

“It is true that she tortured me alone but as a Yazidi girl when she violated me, she violated all the Yazidis. They felt the pain when I was in prison. It is important for all the Yazidis for a Daesh [IS fighter] to be placed in prison.”

Source » msn