Captured German ISIS bride teen paraded through Iraqi streets in 'walk of shame' could face death penalty
A German schoolgirl dragged through the streets of Mosul by Iraqi military forces in a "walk of shame" video could face the death penalty after she was lured to join ISIS.
Linda Wenzel, 16, fled from Pulsnitz near Dresden in Germany on July 1 last year after she reportedly converted to Islam following grooming on social media by an Islamic State recruiter.
Video shows the teenage runaway being paraded through the streets of Mosul after she was found in a lair along with 20 other female ISIS supporters who travelled to Iraq from Russia, Turkey, Canada, Libya and Syria.
The group were said to be barricaded in a hideout beneath Mosul’s Old City armed with guns and explosives.
After the teenager dubbed by German newspaper Bild as the “belle of Mosul” was pulled from the hideout, she was paraded through the city’s streets in what was described as a “walk of shame”.
As two soldiers grip the girl and drag her through the war-ravaged city, she winces in pain from wounds suffered in the battle – a gunshot wound in her left thigh and another injury to her right leg sustained in a helicopter attack.
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“Make room, make room, she is a Christian, she can’t take it any more, she is hurting, she is weak, she is a blonde, she is a German,” one soldier shouts in the video according to The Sun.
“Her name is Dania, no Linda. Allah, Allah. Make way guys, let her through.”
German media had previously interviewed Wenzel, who admitted her regret joining the terrorist organisation at age 15 after she married a Chechen terrorist.
“I just want to get away from here,” she said. “I want to get away from the war, from the many weapons, from the noise. I just want to go home to my family.”
That wish might not come true after German prosecutor Lorenz Haase confirmed no request for Wenzel’s extradition back to Germany had been made “as the public prosecutor’s office Dresden, have not applied for an arrest warrant”.
“There is the possibility that Linda might be put on trial in Iraq,” he told the Associated Press.
“She might be expelled for being a foreigner or, because she is a minor reported missing in Germany, she could be handed over to Germany.”
There is also the possibility that Wenzel could be executed in Iraq under counter-terrorism laws.
However, the teenager would not be put to death before the age of 22 if she were found guilty and sentenced, The Independent reports.
German authorities are now trying to determine whether the teenager and three other German women detained in Iraq on allegations of sympathising with ISIS could return home.
While German consular officials are providing assistance to the women detained in Iraq, it had to be determined whether they might pose a threat to the German public if they were to return home.
