For the third time, the Syrian extended family A. is standing trial at Essen Regional Court. The trial centres on the purchase of a girl, who was 12 years old at the time, in Syria. She was brought to Germany as a ‘bride’, married off and abused.
The A. family, who had settled in Germany, used the girl as a kind of domestic slave, without regard for her age or her rights. It was only when the authorities became aware of the forged documents that the girl was removed from the family and placed in a youth facility for her protection.
The consequences for Wasim A.: In June 2024, the regional court sentenced him to five and a half years in prison. The charges included serious sexual abuse of children in 19 cases, four of which were in conjunction with rape, grievous bodily harm, intentional bodily harm in 13 cases, and threats. The verdict is now final, and Wasim A. is serving his sentence. But the story did not end there. The girl’s father reacted to his daughter’s removal with protest. According to statements by a caregiver at the youth facility, he tried to continue the ‘marriage’ by phoning from Syria, as he feared that this could jeopardise his planned move to Germany.
Just six months after Wasim’s conviction, the second trial started – this time against his 33-year-old brother Ahmad A. He was accused of aiding and abetting the abuse. In court, Ahmad A. openly admitted to signing the purchase agreement for the girl on behalf of the family and organising her transfer to Germany. He also revealed details about family life: he himself lived with two women in Germany, and all his brothers were now resident here.
Such polygamous arrangements are culturally entrenched in Syria, but come up against legal barriers in Germany, where polygamy is not officially recognised. Ahmad A. denied, however, that he knew the girl’s true age. He claimed that only her parents and an imam knew this.
When signing the contract, he only met the girl briefly, as his religion forbids him from ‘examining’ her. The court was unable to prove otherwise, and so the trial ended in late January 2025 with an acquittal. Presiding judge Volker Uhlenbrock explained the verdict soberly: “Although it is hard to believe, buying a human being is not a criminal offence. There is no corresponding provision in the Criminal Code.”
These words sparked a public outcry. Activists, women’s rights organisations and politicians called for a change in the law to make such practices punishable in future. The acquittal was criticised as a loophole in the legal system that leaves vulnerable minors unprotected. The case of the A. family highlights the need for better controls on family reunification and birth certificates. The trial in Essen is expected to last several weeks. The victim, now a teenager, is living in a protected environment and receiving therapeutic support.