Inside the Twana H.S. and Asia R.A. Trial #27: Confessing Guilt, Claiming Solidarity and the Matter of Maturity

TRIAL OF TWANA H.S. AND ASIA R.A.

Higher Regional Court – Munich, Germany

Trial Monitoring Summary #27

Hearing Date: March 23, 25 & 27, 2026

CAUTION: Some testimony may include graphic descriptions of torture, rape or other violent acts.     

Note that this summary is not a verbatim transcript of the trial; it is merely an unofficial summary of the proceedings.     

Throughout this summary, [information located in brackets are notes from our trial monitor] and “information placed in quotes are statements made by the witness, judges or counsel.” The names and identifying information of witnesses have been redacted.    

[Note: SJAC provides a summary of the proceedings while redacting certain details to protect witness privacy and to preserve the integrity of the trial.]   

SJAC’s 27^th trial monitoring report details days 51, 52 and 53 of the trial of Twana H.S. and Asia R.A. in Munich, Germany. On the first trial day of the week, the Court heard the final expert witness report by a child and adolescence psychologist on the question of whether Asia R.A. should be sentenced according to juvenile law. The expert witness met with the female Accused for various interviews over the summer of 2025, in which Asia R.A. painted the picture of a challenging family upbringing and a pressured marriage to the male Accused Twana H.S., in which she suffered significantly. The expert witness saw those and other circumstances as enough evidence to declare Asia R.A. as pre-mature concerning the years in question and recommended the Court to sentence her according to juvenile law. The trial day ended with the Plaintiff Counsel reading a motion that argued for the additional count of “age” under Section 7 (1)(10) CCAIL.

On the second and third trial day of this week, the Court heard the final expert witness report from the German Criminal Police Office (BKA) on the credibility and correctness of times and places of all Yazidi witnesses of this trial, read out various chat messages from Asia R.A.’s phone to family members in Iraq as well as findings from Twana H.S. private phone, gave a number of procedural orders and notices, and read out a supplementary expert report by the Juvenile Court Assistant, which did not change her conclusion not to be capable of recommending a sentencing of Asia R.A. according to either juvenile law or adult law.

Day 51 – March 23, 2026

On this trial day, the Court heard the expert on child and adolescence psychology [redacted name], E1, as an expert witness, who presented his final report on the psychological state of the Accused Asia R.A. After the Presiding Judge informed E1 on his rights and duties as an expert witness, E1 specified that the Court prompted him to psychologically evaluate if there are grounds for Section 105 YCA, and as such, juvenile law, to be applied with regards to Asia R.A.

The expert witness then started to freely present his report by first explaining that together with an interpreter, he interviewed the Accused in various private sessions in the [redacted location] prison throughout the summer months of 2025. Additionally, E1 received access to the court, prison and health files of Asia R.A. and was present during most hearing days of this trial. E1 summarized that Asia R.A. always appeared “cooperative, friendly and open, understood plenty of German and was proud to also show that.” According to E1, Asia R.A. originally only wanted to speak with him about her “life story,” and not about the years 2015-2017 in Iraq and Syria.

E1 then met Asia R.A. for the first time on July 7, 2025, and – according to the expert witness – she immediately told him how “horrible” she felt when she first lived together with the Accused Twana H.S. in Iraq. She described how she was constantly scared of him, had little to eat and drink, was not allowed to voice her opinion and “felt like his personal war booty.” Twana H.S. did not allow her any contact to the outside world, “although her father had raised her as such a strong woman.” According to Asia R.A., E1 explained, Twana H.S. would have been extra strict because he lived under the pressure of [redacted name], F136. The Accused then specified to E1 that immediately after her nikkah [Islamic marriage contract and ceremony] with Twana H.S., she started to “feel completely lost,” which became a feeling that still lasted when she entered Germany with him. She added that this “negative state of mind” only changed when she met with the juvenile court assistance during the start of her time in custody in March 2025. “In her prison cell, she realized that she was a strong woman again,” E1 testified. He added that Asia R.A. had told him that her imprisonment had meant freedom to her.

The expert witness then knew that in the years before, Asia R.A. visited the already imprisoned Twana H.S. on a weekly basis at first, where Twana usually told her that he wants to move back to her family when coming free again. He also asked a lot about their two children, according to Asia R.A., and tried to put pressure on her to see them as often as possible, which Asia R.A. did not want. When E1 asked Asia R.A. about her impression of Twana H.S. in the courtroom, she stated to not fear him anymore and to only feel “hate.” E1 added that, at the beginning, Asia R.A. wanted that “what he did to them, should also happen to him.” Asia R.A. then told E1 that Twana H.S. would “behave like an actor” and “always only thought of himself, never cared for his children.” During E1’s and Asia R.A.’s session in August, the Accused then told the expert witness that “what I witnessed back then was inhuman and should never happen again.”

Subsequently, E1 testified on Asia R.A.’s family background and upbringing. According to the expert witness, Asia R.A.’s mother died when she was a young child. She was told that her mother died in shock after hearing of Asia R.A.’s brother’s death, although it was later revealed that she had cancer. Asia R.A. was thus raised by her sister, grandmother and her father, together with several siblings, although tensions erupted whenever other family members came into play. Asia R.A. particularly remembered, according to E1, that her father took her on the back of his motorcycle when she was four years old – something that most girls of her age were not allowed to do. She repeatedly played with older boys outside of the house, and had a brave personality, which was supported by her father. The expert witness told the Court that Asia R.A. told him that she “was always treated like a human, never like a girl.” When she turned five years old, her father gifted her a bicycle. To E1, Asia R.A. commented on this with her belief that she was “dad’s favorite.” When Asia R.A. turned seven years old, her grandfather died of a heart attack. Asia R.A. saw this as her first confrontation with death, loss and sadness. Besides, Asia R.A. had no learning or speaking problems, had an issue with her right foot, often suffered with diarrhea, had measles and smallpox and did not visit a kindergarden. Between age seven and nine, Asia R.A. almost got sexually assaulted by a neighbor, who tried to undress her in his apartment. She was able to flee, however, the expert witness explained to the Court.

The expert witness then testified that Islam did not seem to take a big role in Asia R.A.’s family. Although all of her family members were Muslim on paper, they did not all actively practice it, nor forced their children to study it extensively. In response to E1, Asia R.A. once stated that she “felt religious in a liberal way, fasted and prayed, but not overly.” When Asia R.A. turned six-year-old, she started visiting a school, did relatively well, but left after two years, since her father got arrested in 2004 as he had fought for Saddam Hussein. This set her back mentally and led her to taking a two-year break from school. While Asia R.A. was able to finish the third and fourth grade later, her family dynamic had changed drastically. When her father got out of prison, he re-married and decided to move out of Mosul. This led to major family conflicts, which Asia R.A. described as the “official loss of her father,” according to E1. When her new stepmother got pregnant, Asia R.A. started to feel “completely ignored by her.” This family dynamic led to Asia R.A. being pulled away from her father to various aunts, uncles, and grandparents often to Kirkuk during the following years, which she once described as “abduction.” Although she wanted to go back to school and started reading for it, the constant moving around made it impossible for her to find the confidence to enroll again. Instead, when Asia R.A. turned 14, her father brought up the topic of marriage for the first time. During the interview with E1, she described this as the start of her “life being torn from her hands.” In the meantime, Asia R.A. had developed feelings for two older men called [redacted name] and [redacted name], but both were rejected by her father. Asia R.A.’s uncle even threatened to kill her for her love ramblings. Eventually, her father introduced the ten years older Arab motorcycle mechanic [redacted name], F137, to her and wanted Asia R.A. to marry him. Although she rejected him vehemently, and even considered suicide because of the pressure, according to E1, Asia R.A. eventually agreed “to avoid further family conflicts.” Asia R.A. and F137 married in 2013.

***  

[19-minutes-break]  

***

After the break, during which Asia R.A. cried, E1 continued his testimony and quoted Asia R.A., who proudly told him that F137 “even called her my little princess.” She quickly fell in love with F137, they had “normal sex” and were happy together. In March 2014, Asia R.A. got pregnant. Three months later, F137 died from an ISIS bomb. According to the expert witness, this made Asia R.A. “deeply sad” and forced her to move back in with her father and stepmother, who “continued to hate her.” Even until today, the fate of her first husband weighs heavily on Asia R.A., E1 testified.

In July 2015, the Accused Twana H.S., who Asia R.A. described as an ambulance driver to E1, “appeared” in the social circle of Asia R.A.’s father and showed interest in his daughter. Slowly, Asia R.A.’s father showed willingness to allow a potential marriage between the two Accused, although, according to what she told the expert witness, Asia R.A. was strongly against it. E1 testified that she felt forced by her stepmother to move out of her father’s house again, and that “for the love to her father,” Asia R.A. eventually agreed to the marriage. Two weeks later, the two Accused married and Asia R.A. received 100 grams of gold as mahr [note: meaning “bridal gift”]. E1 then testified that Asia R.A. had described her first impressions of Twana H.S. to him as overly negative. She claimed that “he was easily upset, narcissistic, saw himself as too important and did not take care of anything.” Asia R.A. was surprised that Twana H.S. followed a very healthy diet, E1 added. Whenever she tried to make jokes, Twana H.S. hit her fingers and replied with “shut up.”

According to the expert witness, Asia R.A. did not want to answer any ISIS-related questions. She did, however, say that Twana H.S. asked for a second wife, which she did not like and tried to prevent Repeatedly, Asia R.A. told E1 that “she just did not like” Twana H.S. and that she only did not leave him because it would not have been accepted by her own family. She added that although their sex was “normal”, she felt like she could “never say no to it.” Shortly before her daughter [redacted name], F1, was born in [redacted time], Asia R.A. tried to kill herself by pouring petrol over her body. She was, however, interrupted by her father and did not go further, E1 testified. After F1’s birth, Twana H.S. cared “a little more” for Asia R.A. and “started to love her.”

According to the expert witness, Asia R.A. then jumped to her and Twana H.S.’s journey to Germany. The Accused only told E1 that “eventually, Twana H.S. wanted to go to Syria and then decided to leave for Germany.” Twana H.S., Asia R.A. and F136 traveled to Turkey in late [redacted time], organized forged identity documents in Greece via F136 and eventually entered Germany with a flight to [redacted location] and with claimed Syrian citizenship. E1 testified that Asia R.A. told him to have been happy when Twana H.S. announced the plans to leave for Germany, as she thought to “finally break free from him after arrival and with the help of her uncle.” Eventually, their son [redacted name], F138, was born in asylum housing in [redacted location], which, according to E1, was described by Asia R.A. as “not a happy moment.” He suffered from brain hemorrhage and had lung problems.

When Twana H.S. was arrested in May 2018, Asia R.A. started to get scared that her husband could negatively control her even out of his prison cell. She told E1, however, that she did not “officially” divorce Twana H.S. Eventually, also Asia R.A. got arrested, and both her children were sent to foster care. In prison, she was allowed to see her children every two months for half an hour. E1 testified that Asia R.A. believes in her strong heart and tries to be liked by all fellow prisoners. While she has never been an aggressive human, E1 added, she certainly would be in constant stages of fear. When the expert witness asked her about her hobbies, Asia R.A. spoke highly of nature, bicycling, soccer, and photography.

E1’s and Asia R.A’s last interview session took place on October 6 of last year. There, Asia R.A. told the expert witness that she often lies on the ground of her single prison cell and holds a filled water bottle to her chest to mimic the feeling of having her children in her arms. Additionally, Asia R.A. would have often dreamt of the killing of civilians. When eventually fellow prisoners learned about her and Twana H.S. from the news, she was threatened and abused by them. Followingly, Asia R.A. decided to not go outside of her cell anymore, E1 described. Only for her German and gymnastic lessons she found some motivation, as she liked her German teacher very much. She also enjoys reading books about German culture, for example, on the Oktoberfest. In this context, E1 added, Asia R.A. wanted to specify that she felt well treated by everyone at Court, except by the female Court interpreter.

To E1’s surprise, Asia R.A. concluded the session with her wish to comment on the events concerning this trial. According to the expert witness, Asia R.A. expressed that she “was young back then and not able to differentiate if her actions were mistakes.” She added that from today’s perspective, she would have “tried to kill” her husband “to prevent all of this to happen.” Furthermore, she saw herself “as guilty and in full solidarity with the slaves.” “There are no words that describe how sorry I feel for them – no human can ever accept that, and it was a big catastrophe,” Asia R.A. stated towards E1. In this context, and according to the expert witness, Asia R.A. also expressed her former fear that Twana H.S. could have sold her as a “slave” if she ever rejected his demands. Again, Asia R.A. complained to E1 that Twana H.S. would have been “very disgusting” in court so far. When the expert witness asked about her relationship to ISIS, Asia R.A. told him that Twana H.S. was an ISIS member but that she did not know if he actively fought in combat. “What he did with those children was far worse than that,” she then added. While Asia R.A. had first been against ISIS, it all slowly seemed normal to her, she expressed towards E1. Only later did she realize that “those all were criminals,” especially when she learned to “wear Western clothes and enjoy life” during her time in [redacted location], E1 testified.

Finally, the expert witness asked Asia R.A. about her wishes for the future. To this, Asia R.A. replied with her wish to settle down with her children, fully integrate herself and work in Germany, and to seek therapy to once and for all forget about Twana H.S. E1 specified that Asia R.A. was scared to ever need to leave Germany again. She would love to work as a landscaper, motorcycle mechanic or childcare worker, but acknowledged that the latter would probably not be possible with “her backstory.” Asia R.A. did not want to marry again, E1 testified, and only care for her children.

***  

[58-minutes-break]  

***

After the lunch break, the expert witness gave another summary of the most important insights from his sessions with Asia R.A. and added that she herself told him that she “completely changed, got older and met many open people recently that opened up her eyes, which previously were morally shut in the belief to be in God’s good graces.” Furthermore, E1 specified that he included the difficult cultural situation of her Kurdish upbringing into his evaluation, just like the fact that from her birth on, Asia R.A.’s environment was shaped by political crises. Although she had a stabile youth, the constant change of emotional contact persons made her emotionally insecure. She constantly had reasons to get socially overwhelmed, which negatively influenced her personality development. When the German wife of ISIS member F6, [redacted name], F7, confronted her about her mistreatment of P1, Asia R.A. clearly felt guilty and justified her actions with them being “halal,” E1 explained. All of this would not allow enough room to justify the sufficient level of psychological maturity of a criminal offender in accordance with the YCA, the expert witness found. Additionally, there was a clear power dynamic between Twana H.S. and Asia R.A., which was occasionally proven by the testimonies of P2, who stated that Asia R.A. asked her for forgiveness after Twana H.S. had raped P2. In turn, such guilt and sense of wrongdoing can certainly not be seen as proof of maturity, according to E1. F7 also testified that Asia R.A. “only acted like a real mother that still was a full child,” E1 noted. According to the expert witness, Asia R.A.’s interest in going to children's playgrounds would be proof of that. Besides, during this trial, Asia R.A. seemed friendly, either sad or in a good mood, never angry, informed, interested and communicative with her defense team and the interpreters. E1 saw this as evidence that no formal personality disorder, lack of intelligence or forensic memory disfunction would be apparent with regards to the female Accused. Although her personality did not seem fully developed yet, Asia R.A. increasingly appeared as self-critical and future-oriented.

Finally, the expert witness started his concluding remarks by acknowledging that the psychiatric evaluation of over ten years old circumstances that affected a period of over two years was incredibly difficult. However, the combination of her special circumstances of her upbringing environment, the family conflicts, and early moments of emotional resilience during her youth years, the strongly limited moral and autonomy development while living under Twana H.S., and today’s major realizations and feelings of guilt would speak for a post-maturation process that happened during the past few years after her time in Iraq and Syria. While scientifically evaluating such factors, the scale from 1991 used by E1’s Juvenile Court Assistance colleague, who testified in February, cannot be recommended, as they are not only scientifically outdated but also limited in their applicability for humans from non-Western cultural backgrounds. All in all, the expert witness concluded that Asia R.A. was a young woman who was “still developing and malleable” at the time when she married Twana H.S.; a development stage which certainly did not change for the better during the following two years in question for this trial. While the final decision remains with the Court, and the decision was not easy or overly clear, the expert witness recommended the application of Section 105 YCA and with that, a potential sentencing of Asia R.A. only according to juvenile law.

***  

[20-minutes-break]  

***

After the break, the Court started its questioning of the expert witness and first wanted to know if Asia R.A. ever seemed to simulate her feelings and circumstances. E1 testified that he has no reasons to believe that Asia R.A.’s statements have been falsely constructed. Specifically, the Court was interested in the many marriage proposals Asia R.A. rejected and then suddenly accepted, and asked about further reasons behind her final decisions. E1 was only able to respond with the special psychological pressure and family circumstances the Accused found herself in, which “would drive any person into a state of mental confusion.” When the Court asked how P1’s testimony that Asia R.A. seemed loving towards Twana H.S. and even stated that “her heart was united” with her husband would fit together with E1’s testimony about Asia R.A.’s negative stance against her husband, the expert witness replied that it would be normal that people take on different roles in certain social situations although they do not emotionally feel about them accordingly. Above all, however, the answer to this question would be one for the Court to find out, since E1 can only report on what he was told by Asia R.A. directly.

The Prosecution then asked how it made sense that a supposed lack of independence seemed to be an important factor for evaluating Asia R.A.’s maturity, when she clearly independently led the household as well as dictated P1’s and P2’s day to day life. According to the expert witness, an answer to this would all depend on how Asia R.A. behaved when Twana H.S. was at home or not. One would need to evaluate how she behaved when she was present at the same time as Twana H.S., which of course is impossible. E1 did not provide further comments on this, especially when the Court asked how with such logic, one could ever prove Asia R.A.’s potential independence and maturity, “if Twana H.S. always stood above her.” The only grade of maturity a psychologist could evaluate in such a situation would lie in the person’s upbringing, E1 testified. On top of that, one needs to respect the unique man to woman power dynamic, he added. The Court and Prosecution was visibly skeptical about the expert witness’s answers and concluded that by his logic, all women who grew up in patriarchal structures would long be immature. Furthermore, E1 testified that the fact that Asia R.A. often used various identities when she entered Germany could hint to a more consolidated character.

The Court then wanted to know if the cultural circles Asia R.A. grew up in, in which “girls commonly take on a lot of responsibility early, and marry young, for example,” could produce more independent and mature personalities early on, compared to their Western counterparts. To this, the expert witness quickly replied with “theoretically yes, but not as early as 13 or 14 years old.” Subsequently, the Prosecution inquired about the testimony of one witness which hinted towards Asia R.A.’s joy of wearing the Niqab and even stated that Asia R.A. had herself chosen her husband Twana H.S, and asked how this might change E1’s evaluation. While E1 did acknowledge that Asia R.A.’s credibility would be in danger, he still testified that such facts would not change his evaluation regarding the juvenile law. Finally, the Court asked a couple of questions on the exact psychological evaluation techniques behind post-maturing and why E1’s impression that Asia R.A. stood behind her recent statements of guilt would be a sign of maturity today, and not similarly when she lived with Twana H.S., P1 and P2. In response, the expert witness only answered with the importance of a psychological comprehensive overview.

The Defense did not have any questions, and the expert witness got dismissed at 2:54 pm.

As the last program point of the hearing day, the Court turned to the Plaintiffs’ Counsel, who prepared a written motion arguing that P1 and P2 had also been targeted by the Accused because of their age. Twana H.S. and Asia R.A. should therefore be charged with another count of crimes against humanity in accordance with Section 7 (1)(10) CCAIL, besides the already in the indictment included counts of persecution based on “religion,” “gender”, “ethnicity” and “culture.” The Plaintiffs’ Counsel especially argued with P1’s young age of four to five years, when the two Accused bought as a Sabiya. Since children are of great importance for the continuation of Yazidi culture being a closed ethnic community, to specifically target them young and make them change their names, religion, and cultural traits before they even fully internalized them, would be specifically severe. On top of that, forced sexual practices could later on exclude Yazidis from their own communities. Since ISIS, including the Accused, separated the Yazidis by age and gender, this Court must follow the decision of the “Lina Ishaq“-case of the Stockholm District Court (Case No:B 3210-23), the Plaintiffs’ Counsel concluded.

The proceedings were adjourned at 3:40 PM.

The next trial day will be on March 25, 2026, at 9:30 AM.

Day 52 – March 25, 2026

The second trial day of this week started with a report by expert witness [redacted name], W8, who is a research analyst at the German Criminal Police Office (BKA), and already testified twice in this trial, last on February 4, 2026 [for the details of this testimony, see Trial Report #24]. .

This time, W8 presented a report on all the dates and places the Yazidi witnesses of this trial testified about. For this purpose, she had prepared an in-depth timeline document, which was projected in the courtroom and specified dates and places in a parallel excel-sheet format, which were mentioned in the testimonies of [redacted name] (F32), [redacted name] (F49), [redacted name] (F34), [redacted name] (F33), [redacted name] (F29), [redacted name] (P2), [redacted name] (F35), and [redacted name] (W19) relating to their captivity under ISIS. The file included specific color codings indicating overlap of the Yazidi witnesses with each other and with the Accused of this trial specifically. The expert witness then commented on the credibility of the dates, timeframes and places, and was able to correct many of allegedly incorrect ones with the knowledge she had acquired in her BKA analyses. W8 testified that the data provided by the witnesses was overwhelmingly comprehensive, correct and in that way credible, and that as such, it did not seem that there were any larger issues with most of the testimonies of the witnesses. Only the testimony of P2's sister [redacted name], W19, was described as "completely off" regarding the timeframes, and "in the wrong order" regarding some of the connected events.

The Court was impressed by the timeline-document, which will be provided to all parties to the proceedings as a digital file, and only asked very few clarifying questions. Subsequently, the expert witness presented a report on historic weather data, with the purpose of proofing that there indeed has been snow - 1,47 mm - in Mosul during January of 2016. This had been requested by the Court, as one of the witnesses testified that as a punishment, either P1 or P2 had to walk outside naked in the snow once.

After the expert witness had been dismissed, the Court continued the reading of translated chats from the phone of the Accused Asia R.A. during 2019 and 2020. The chats were mostly between Asia R.A. and family members in Iraq, often asking her questions on Twana H.S. The topic of the chats often circled around the situation that Twana H.S. received a notice of deportation to Iraq, and that Asia R.A.’s family was looking for roughly 13.000 € to prevent this [note: The messages were read out without any context and often with names that did not mirror the ones of this trial. The monitor was therefore not able to match all of them to facts or persons involved in this trial.] All parties to the proceedings had the chats in written form in front of them.

 The proceedings were adjourned at 11:25 AM.

The next trial day will be on March 27, 2026, at 9:30 AM.

Day 53 – March 27, 2026

On the third trial day of this week, the Court spent four hours on various open court readings, viewings and orders on procedural matters. No witnesses were summoned for this day.

The trial day started with the legal notice by the Court that the five cases of sexual abuse that the Court followed until that point, will be reduced to four. As taken from the witness testimonies, the Court noted that it legally pursues one count of rape for P1 and P2 each, in addition to two counts of sexual abuse with regards to P2. Additionally, the statement by the Plaintiffs’ Counsel from March 23, 2026 [trial day 51] regarding the inclusion of the count "age" when judging the crime of persecution according to Section 7 (1)(10) CCAIL was noted favorably by the Court.

Next, the Court read various WhatsApp chats between Asia R.A. and different family members from Asia R.A.'s phone and thereby continued where it left off on March 25, 2026 [trial day 52]. The chats mentioned that parts of Asia R.A.’s family in Iraq were concerned about her and her children's life in Germany and inquired a lot about the imprisoned Twana H.S. Quotes of messages from Asia R.A. to various family members included: "I am now in the country of the nonbelievers, but they are more merciful than many Muslims and respect us"; "my husband lives in prison, hahahahaha"; "we were both in ‘the organisation’, but in Germany, one only gets imprisoned when one did something bad, which I haven't"; to one of her uncles, "yes, you are a hot man, but women want rights and romance, not just duties." Asia R.A. also texted with a man called [redacted name], F129, who appeared to have been an Iraqi police officer and exchanged various romantic messages with her. Repeatedly, Asia R.A. texted him how badly she wanted to see him “with all the power of his uniform standing in front of [her],” that she was jealous of the people F129 is policing, that he had so pretty eyes, and that she did “not want to come between him and his wife and children.” There, Asia R.A. also revealed that she "had to" visit Twana H.S. every week in prison and got "totally annoyed" each time. To see his children, Twana H.S. was allowed to visit Asia R.A. over a weekend and away from prison once, which Asia R.A. "hated," as she described in messages to F129. During this visit, Twana H.S. also tried to sleep with Asia R.A., but she refused, according to the exchange with F129.

The Court then read several police reports, for example, on the smartphone that Twana H.S. carried with him when he entered Germany. There, the police found a variety of Jihadist material, recent manuals on how to use specific machine guns, and saved news articles on Yazidi enslavement and ISIS structures in Munich, Hamburg, Bremen, Paris, and Stockholm.

Finally, the Court read the supplementary report from the Juvenile Court Assistant Dr. Setz on Asia R.A.'s psychological state and on the question of whether she should be tried according to juvenile law. She already presented her findings on trial day 50 [for the details of this testimony, see Trial Report #26], but the Court ordered her to provide some more analysis that should take into account the specific cultural context of Asia R.A.’s upbringing, independent from the common psychological assessment methods that would mostly only work for Western contexts. All in all, her expert opinion did not change and, different to E1’s evaluation presented on the first day of this week [trial day 51], she again declared to not be able to give a definite recommendation to the Court to the question if Asia R.A. should or should not be tried according to juvenile law. Dr. Setz did not provide any new arguments and maintained her evaluation that when Twana H.S. was out of the house, Asia R.A. gave independent orders to the Yazidi girls and intensively cared for her own child, which would show "fully mature and adult behavior."

The proceedings were adjourned at 11:40 AM.

The next trial day will be on April 20, 2026, at 9:30 AM.

___________________________

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