A Frankfurt court Tuesday found an Iraqi national who was part of Islamic State (IS) guilty of genocide against the Yazidi minority, sentencing him to life imprisonment for killing a five-year-old girl. This was the first time that a court convicted an individual for committing genocide against the Yazidi minority.

The 29-year-old, Taha al-Jumailly, was found guilty of crimes against humanity resulting in the death of the Yazidi people. The Kurdish-speaking group from northern Iraq has been targeted throughout the Iraq war. The UN has also accused IS of crimes against Yazidis and humanity. There are thousands of victims, including 3,000 Yazidis and 7,000 enslaved. Victims also included a five-year-old girl and her mother who were imprisoned and later killed in 2015, according to the prosecution. The defense for al-Jumailly denied all allegations.

Al-Jumailly’s wife, a German national, was jailed for 10 years in 2020 for similar crimes. The court found that she “purchased” slaves, amounting to a grave human rights violation.

In the German International Criminal Code, genocide includes killing a person of a group by force, with the intent to destroy the whole group. This was a landmark case holding IS members accountable for the genocide of the Yazidi people.

Arrested in Greece in 2019, al-Jumailly was extradited to Germany to await trial under the “principle of universal jurisdiction.” Praising the outcome, lawyer Natia Navrousov said that it was an outcome hoped for by the Yazidi community and genocide survivors. It additionally confirms that these crimes against the Yazidi people were genocide.