Girl, 16, who fled home to fight for ISIS in Mosul ‘to stand trial in Iraq’ and could face death penalty.
The 16-year-old and three other German women were charged yesterday following their capture in July in ISIS stronghold of Mosul, German weekly Der Spiegel reports.
German diplomats were confident teenager Linda Wenzel would be spared the death penalty but said it was possible she could spend years imprisoned in Iraq, according to Der Spiegel.
Footage from Wenzel’s arrest shows the schoolgirl being jostled through a crowd of cheering Iraqi soldiers.
Wenzel appears distraught however only screams out once, though she does appear to be holding back tears.
Wenzel’s parents had been desperately looking for her since she disappeared from her home town of Pulsnitz, near Dresden, in July last year.
She is suspected of converting to Islam after being groomed by ISIS members on social media and reportedly married an ISIS soldier on Iraq.
Wenzel was arrested by Iraqi forces after she and a group of 20 female ISIS supporters from various countries barricaded themselves inside a tunnel in the ruins of Mosul with guns and explosives, The Guardian reports.
The decision by Iraq to initiate criminal proceedings against Wenzel and the other German women will come as a blow to German authorities who had been hoping to have them extradited back to Germany.
It is important to remember this is a girl of sixteen who went to Iraq under the impression she would be fighting for a cause. She is guilty of participation in whatever crimes these men took part in, but her life is also of a victim. Yes, she chose to go, but did she really know the full reality of life in IS? Before we scream for the death penalty we need to know the truth and not just the official version. She would have no choice but to marry as a woman cannot be single in IS. She is regarded as fully adult by the age of 12_to 14 and not a child. In most Western countries this girl would barely be the age of consent. In America, this would be rape. Her role is not to fight but to support the men in any way they choose as a wife, cook, cleaner, teacher, to attend them and to give birth to the next generation of fighters. She is not devalued but she will have to obey the men and older women and will not be allowed out without a male guardian or other women. I doubt she did any fighting, let alone killing. We cannot as so many people are demanding, simply hang her. For one thing we can use her knowledge to stop other kids doing this and find out more about IS. It is clear she made a choice and she has to face justice for her choice, but that should not include the death penalty. If found guilty she must either be monitored in prison in Iraq or sent back to a German prison. She is 16. Killing her is not justice.