An Iraqi court has sentenced Asma Mohammed, the widow of former ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, to death. The court announced on Wednesday that Mohammed was charged with detaining Yazidi women and keeping them as sex slaves at her home. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the notorious ISIS leader, was killed in a US military operation in northwestern Syria in 2019.
Mohammed, was subsequently arrested in Turkey in the same year, as per judicial sources. According to state media, quoting a statement from the Supreme Judicial Council, "The terrorist held Yazidi women captive in her residence, who were abducted by ISIS terrorist groups in the Sinjar district of western Nineveh province."
Death Sentence for Keeping Sex Slaves
Iraq declared that they had secured "the repatriation of the family" for al-Baghdadi as she and her children returned to the Middle East. Anyone found guilty of helping or concealing a terror suspect faces life in prison under Iraqi counterterrorism rules.
Mohammed identified herself as a "victim who tried to escape from her husband" in an interview with the BBC following her return to Iraq this year.
She would also insist that she had nothing to do with the savage rule of ISIS. Mohammed, who married al-Baghdadi in 1999, said in one of her last interviews before her sentencing that her husband had more than ten "slave" women.
She told Al Arabiya that al-Baghdadi and other leaders of the terrorist group had an intense fixation on women.
Mohammed also allegedly said that her husband became increasingly arrogant after gaining international notoriety for his tyrannical leadership.
Two Yazidi women vehemently challenged her claims of innocence, filing lawsuits against Mohammed accusing her of being complicit in their kidnapping and enslavement.
Not Just Terrorists
Soad, a victim of ISIS, told BBC: "She was responsible for everything. She made the selections – this one to serve her, that one to serve her husband."
The Yazidis, a religious group in the Middle East, were targeted by ISIS when the terrorist group gained power in 2014. During a period marked by extreme violence, ISIS abducted over 6,000 Yazidi people.
According to the United Nations, crimes against the Yazidis perpetrated by ISIS include executions, torture, amputations, sectarian attacks, rape, and sexual slavery.
Iraqi courts have issued hundreds of death sentences and sentenced many others to life imprisonment over the past decade for involvement with ISIS.
Meanwhile, Umm Hudaifa, the first wife of al-Baghdadi, has provided disturbing details about their troubled marriage, with the widow also currently detained in an Iraqi prison.
The terror bride, speaking from behind bars, said that al-Baghdadi was "psychologically damaged" and that he had been subjected to sexual torture. She continued by saying that the ISIS leader kept sex slaves at their home and even married off his own 12-year-old daughter to one of his friends.
Then-US President Donald Trump remarked that al-Baghdadi had "died like a dog...he died like a coward" shortly after his death was announced.
He was considered one of the most wanted men in the world for a long time because of his affiliation with al-Qaeda and later ISIS.
