Linda Wenzel is being held in an Iraqi prison amid unconfirmed claims she had a baby with her when she was captured by Iraqi special forces last week. Photo/Supplied
Linda Wenzel is being held in an Iraqi prison amid unconfirmed claims she had a baby with her when she was captured by Iraqi special forces last week. Photo/Supplied
Linda Wenzel, the 16-year-old Islamic state bride captured in Mosul, could face trial in Iraq after it emerged her native Germany has yet to request her extradition.
Wenzel is being held in an Iraqi prison amid unconfirmed claims she had a baby with her when she was captured by Iraqi special forces last week.
"I don't know for sure that it is her baby, but she keeps him with her always," the Sunday Times quoted an unidentified Iraqi special forces soldier as saying, according to Daily Telegraph.
The newspaper claimed the baby was transferred to Baghdad with Wenzel. Iraqi and German authorities have not commented on the claims.
German broadcasters NDR and WDR and Sueddeutsche Zeitung said they had interviewed Wenzel at a military complex in Baghdad and she told them she wanted to leave.
"I just want to get away from here," she was quoted as saying. "I want to get away from the war, from the many weapons, from the noise." She added: "I just want to go home to my family."
The media outlets said the teenager had told them she regretted joining Isis, wanted to be extradited to Germany and would cooperate with authorities.
They said the girl had wounds on her left thigh and right knee.
Wenzel ran away from home in Pulsnitz, a small town near Dresden, last year, and is believed to have travelled to Syria to join Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Isil).
She reportedly married an Isil fighter who is thought to have been killed in an air strike.
Although German authorities have opened an investigation against her on suspicion of terror offences, they have yet to make a formal extradition request, and prosecutors acknowledged at the weekend that she may face trial in Iraq.
Iraqi forces image showing 16-year-old German Linda Wentzel. Photo/Supplied
"There is the possibility that Linda might be put on trial in Iraq," Lorenz Haase, a spokesman for German prosecutors said. "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."
Under Iraqi law, Wenzel could face up to 15 years in prison if found guilty of terror offences.
Although Iraq has the death penalty, it does not apply to minors.
German consular officials have been given access to Wenzel and confirmed that she is the arrested woman.
Her parents are reportedly travelling to Iraq to visit her. Germany has not requested the teen's extradition because there is not enough evidence to issue an arrest warrant yet, prosecutors explained.
"Legally, there can be no extradition request until an arrest warrant is issued," Haase said.
"At the moment it is not fully clear what she did after leaving Germany and travelling to Istanbul. The investigation into that is ongoing."
According to unconfirmed reports from Mosul, Wenzel was armed and is thought to have fired at Iraqi troops before was captured.
The special forces soldier told the Sunday Times she was "unrepentant".
She is being held along with three other German women, according to Spiegel magazine. One is of Moroccan heritage, while another is from Chechnya but has a German passport.
