Al-Baghdadi's wife sentenced to death for enslaving Yazidis

Al-Baghdadi's wife sentenced to death for enslaving Yazidi women — An Iraqi court sentenced Asma Fawzi Mohammed al-Qubaysi, known as Asma Mohammed, the widow of the former Islamic State ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, to death by hanging for her role in enslaving kidnapped Yazidi women. Photo: Screengrab/Alarabiya TV/interview with Mohammed in February 2024.

BAGHDAD,— An Iraqi court sentenced Asma Fawzi Mohammed al-Qubaysi, known as Asma Mohammed, the widow of the former Islamic State ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, to death by hanging for her role in enslaving kidnapped Yazidi women.

This verdict was delivered by the al-Karkh Crime Court in Baghdad, which ordered Mohammed to be hanged, according to state media reports.

The court’s ruling underscored the severity of Mohammed’s crimes. She was found guilty of enslaving Yazidi women in her home, women who had been kidnapped by ISIS militants in the Sinjar district of western Nineveh province.

The decision was based on Article Four of Iraq’s Counter-Terrorism law of 2005, which mandates the death penalty for anyone found guilty of committing a terror offense. Those who assist or shelter terrorists face life imprisonment under the same statute.

Mohammed, who was arrested in Turkey in 2018 and extradited to Iraq in February, has consistently denied her involvement in ISIS’s brutal activities.

In a recent interview with the BBC, she portrayed herself as a victim attempting to escape her husband’s influence.

However, this narrative was starkly contradicted by the testimonies of at least two Yazidi women who filed lawsuits against her, accusing her of complicity in their kidnapping and enslavement.

“She was responsible for everything. “She decided who would serve her and who would serve her husband, and my sister was among those chosen,” recounted Soad, a Yazidi woman who endured enslavement, rape, and sale by ISIS, in her interview with the BBC.

In interviews with Arab TV channels al-Arabia and al-Hadath, Mohammed disclosed aspects of her life, including her initial involvement with the Muslim Brotherhood and later with the Nusrat group. Eventually, she aligned with ISIS, where she assumed a leadership role.

The downfall of Mohammed’s husband, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, came five years ago during a US special forces raid in Idlib province, Syria. Cornered in a tunnel with three of his children, al-Baghdadi detonated a suicide vest, killing himself.

ISIS, which rose to power in 2014, seized vast territories in Iraq and Syria. By 2017 in Iraq and 2019 in Syria, the group had lost its territorial control.

Despite this, remnants of ISIS continue to pose security threats, particularly in Iraq and in the Syrian desert regions stretching from Damascus to the Iraqi border.

The Yazidi community faced unprecedented horrors at the hands of ISIS. In August 2014, ISIS militants attacked Sinjar, a district in northwest Iraq, home to a large Yazidi population.

The offensive followed the withdrawal of Kurdish KDP militia forces, which left Yazidi civilians defenseless against ISIS’s genocidal campaign.

Trapped on Mount Sinjar, thousands of Yazidi families suffered from severe shortages of water and food.

Thousands were killed, abducted, raped, and subjected to horrific violence. Many women were sold into sexual slavery and dispersed across Iraq, Syria, and beyond. Men and boys were either executed, forced into labor, or coerced into becoming child soldiers.

Tribal leader Massoud Barzani, Iraqi Kurdistan — Tribal leader and the head of Kurdistan Democratic Party KDP party Massoud Barzani, Erbil, Iraqi Kurdistan, 2021. He is considered responsible for the Yazidi massacre after his KDP forces withdrew from the area without a fight, leaving the Yazidi civilians to face IS killings and genocide. Photo: FB

A confidential report by Iraq’s Kurdistan regional government revealed that 18,000 peshmerga KDP forces from Massoud Barzani’s command retreated without resisting when ISIS attacked Sinjar.

This retreat resulted in the massacre of approximately 3,000 Yazidis and the abduction of 6,800 others over several days.

While thousands of Yazidis have been rescued over the past few years, approximately 3,000 remain missing. The failure of the KDP Peshmerga forces to protect the Yazidis led to widespread disillusionment with the ruling Barzani family among the Yazidi community.

The Yazidis, a Kurdish-speaking religious group with ancient roots tied to Zoroastrianism and Sufism, have faced historical persecution, particularly from extremist groups like ISIS that consider them heretics.

Prior to the ISIS onslaught in 2014, around 600,000 Yazidis lived in villages within Iraqi Kurdistan and surrounding areas in Nineveh province.

The Yazidi Rescue Office reports that 360,000 Yazidis managed to escape and seek refuge elsewhere as ISIS advanced.

Yazidi communities also exist in Transcaucasia, Armenia, Georgia, Turkey, and Syria. Since the 1990s, many Yazidis have emigrated to Europe, especially Germany, leading to a global Yazidi population of approximately 1.5 million.