A German woman who joined the Islamic State jihadist group has gone on trial accused of the war crime of letting a five-year-old Yazidi "slave" girl die of thirst in the sun.
The case against Jennifer Wenisch, 27, is believed to be the first anywhere in the world for international crimes committed by IS militants against members of the Yazidi minority.
She faces a maximum term of life in jail if found guilty of committing murder and of murder as a war crime, as well membership in a terrorist organisation and violations of the German War Weapons Control Act.
It is Germany's first trial of a female IS returnee, prosecutor Claudia Gorf told the Munich court.
Wenisch, wearing a white blouse and black jacket, her dark hair not covered, showed no emotion and did not speak, but shielded her face with a paper folder while photographers were in the room at the start.
Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Nadia Murad, herself a Yazidi survivor of IS enslavement and torture, said in a statement that the trial "is a very big moment for me and for the entire Yazidi community".
German prosecutors allege Wenisch and her IS husband "purchased" the Yazidi woman and child as household "slaves" whom they held captive while living in then IS-occupied Mosul, Iraq, in 2015.
German media said the defendant's husband, Taha Sabah Noori Al-J, had beaten both the mother and child, and that Wenisch allegedly also once held a pistol to the woman's head.
The trial is being held under tight security in a court for state security and terrorism cases, with hearings initially scheduled until 30 September.
Prominent London-based human rights lawyer Amal Clooney is part of the team representing the dead Yazidi girl's mother, although Ms Clooney did not appear on the trial's opening day.
She has been involved in a campaign to ensure that IS crimes against the Yazidi are recognised as a "genocide".
"I hope this will be the first of many trials that will finally bring ISIS to justice in line with international law," the lawyer said in a statement.
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