ISIS couple who enslaved and raped Yazidi girls aged five and 12 are jailed in Germany

By PERKIN AMALARAJ, FOREIGN NEWS REPORTER Published: 12:03, 13 July 2026 | Updated: 12:10, 13 July 2026 An ISIS couple who enslaved and raped a pair of Yazidi girls for several years have been handed lengthy jail sentences by a German court.  Twana HS and Asia RA were arrested by German police in April 2024 and charged with genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, Bild reported.  For their crimes, Twana HS was handed a life sentence, while Asia RA was given a sentence of nine-and-a-half years behind bars.   The ISIS couple were based in Iraq and Syria, in an area controlled by the Islamic terror group, between 2015 and 2017, according to the Federal Prosecutor's Office and the Higher Regional Court of Munich.  There, the Iraqi couple first enslaved a five-year-old Yazidi girl, before taking a 12-year-old girl.  The two victims were forced to work for the couple and manage their household, all while being indoctrinated with ISIS' ideology. They allegedly stopped them from practising their own religion, forcing them instead to follow Islam. Twana HS raped both girls multiple times, according to prosecutors, who added that his wife supported the crimes.  They said that she prepared a room and applied makeup to one of the girls before the assaults.  Twana HS (pictured) was sentenced to life behind bars for his crimes Asia RA (pictured, centre) was handed a nine-and-a-half year sentence The couple also regularly abused the young victims. Among other things, Twana HS beat the older girl with a broom handle.  Meanwhile, Asia RA scalded the younger girl's hand with hot water.  Both girls were repeatedly punished by being forced to stand on one leg for extended periods of time.  After ISIS lost territory towards the end of 2017, the defendants fled the region but did not release the two girls.  Instead, they handed them over to other members of the terror organisation.  It wasn't until years later they were arrested in Germany. Asia RA was arrested in Regensburg, while the man was apprehended in the town of Roth, both in the southern state of Bavaria.  The Yazidis are a Kurdish-speaking group hailing from northern Iraq. They have for years been persecuted by ISIS militants who have killed hundreds of men, raped women and forcibly recruited children as fighters.  In another case, a German woman who joined the jihadist group was in 2023 handed a 14-year jail term by a Munich court for enslaving a five-year-old Yazidi girl and letting her die of thirst. The defendant, a German convert to Islam, was convicted in October 2021 of, among other charges, two counts of crimes against humanity through enslavement - one case resulting in death - and membership of a terrorist organisation abroad. The pair were charged with genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes She was initially given a 10-year sentence, which was overturned by the Federal Court of Justice on the grounds that judges had erred in sentencing the defendant for a 'less severe case' of crimes against humanity and overlooked aggravating circumstances. A new sentencing hearing for the woman, identified only as Jennifer W. in line with German privacy rules, ended in August that year with the 14-year sentence. The court said it rejected her appeal as 'manifestly unfounded'.