Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s Wife Sentenced to Death for Crimes Against Yazidis

A court in Iraq has sentenced to death one of the wives of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the slain Islamic State leader, for her involvement in crimes against the Yazidi religious minority. When ISIS seized about a third of Iraq and parts of Syria in 2014, the group’s militants targeted the Sinjar region in northern Iraq, the ancestral land of the Yazidis.

The terrorist organization brutally killed over 10,000 Yazidi individuals, while 6,000 others were captured in what the United Nations has recognized as a genocide. Justice has been a challenge in holding the perpetrators accountable for these heinous acts.

The Supreme Judicial Council of Iraq announced that the wife of al-Baghdadi was found guilty of collaborating with ISIS in the kidnapping and detention of Yazidi women. Though her name was not disclosed by the council, reports have identified her as Asma Mohammed, who was apprehended by Turkish forces and transferred to Iraqi authorities.

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi met his demise in 2019 when he detonated a suicide vest during a confrontation with United States Special Operations forces in northwestern Syria.

ISIS fighters subjected many Yazidi women and girls to sexual slavery and repeated assaults. Among the captives was Kayla Mueller, a 26-year-old humanitarian worker from Arizona, who tragically lost her life.