Iraq is refusing to let a 16-year-old German schoolgirl who faces execution for joining ISIS return home, it was reported today.
ISIS bride Linda Wenzel was dragged from Mosul rubble in July as Iraqi forces liberated the city and is now being held in Baghdad where her fate rests in the hands of the country’s court system.
German diplomats are pushing for her to be allowed home for a trial but a German security source today said Iraq is refusing.
The source said it was problematic that the two countries have no extradition agreement, reports the Berliner Zeitung.
Last month Iraqi PM Haider al-Abadi said Wenzel might face the death penalty as he explained that the Iraqi judiciary is deciding which charges will be levied against her.
Al-Abadi said: ‘You know teenagers under certain laws, they are accountable for their actions especially if the act is a criminal activity when it amounts to killing innocent people.’
The Iraqi PM said that Wenzel was currently still in a Baghdad prison and that it remained to be seen whether prosecutors would demand the death penalty in court.
The clear threat of a trial in Baghdad and a potentially lengthy prison sentence or even capital punishment has worried Wenzel’s father.
Reiner Wenzel said: ‘I want so much that my Linda comes home again healthy. I will always be there for her.’
‘I fear for her. The authorities absolutely have to bring her to Germany so that she can get a fair trial.’
He said that he had not had any personal contact with his daughter since she joined ISIS a year ago but added: ‘I was, however, told that Linda was not involved in any acts of war.’
Wenzel was reportedly worked for special brigade that whipped women who didn’t wear a full-face veil.
