Iraq sentences German woman to death for joining Isis, reports say
The unnamed woman admitted travelling to Syria to join the terror group along with her two daughters
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Your support makes all the difference.An Iraqi court has sentenced a German woman to death after she ran away to join Isis.
The court in Baghdad convicted the unnamed German woman of “providing logistical support and assistance to the terrorist group to commit crimes” and has ordered her execution.
The spokesman of the Supreme Judicial Council, Abdul-Sattar Bayrkdar, says the woman acknowledged joining Isis after travelling from Germany to Syria and then to Iraq along with her two daughters. Both daughters later married militants.
She is believed to have been living in the Mannheim region of Germany when she travelled to Syria but is reportedly of Moroccan descent.
The woman is believed to have been among a number of women in July 2017 who were captured after the battle of Mosul when Iraqi forces pushed Isis out of Iraq’s second city.
She now faces hanging but can still appeal her sentence, Mr Bayrkdar said.
Iraqi forces have detained a number of foreign women after they drove Isis from its former territory in northern and central Iraq.
It is estimated that over 27,000 foreign fighters, including 6,000 Europeans, have travelled to Iraq and Syria since the start of the Arab Spring in 2011 but not all of them have joined Isis, according to data published by the Soufran Group.
A Russian Isis fighter was sentenced to death in Iraq last year for joining the hardline group.
Meanwhile one of those in prison awaiting trial is German teenager Linda Wenzel who ran away to Syria when she was just 15 years old.
Wenzel also faces the death penalty if convicted of aiding Isis. Iraqi authorities say she admitted to working as a sniper during the battle but Wenzel claims she was mostly kept as a domestic servant.
Iraq declared victory last month over Isis, which had seized control of nearly a third of the country in 2014. However, the terror group continues to carry out bombings and other attacks in the country.
Additional reporting by agencies