Iraq begins criminal proceedings against German IS schoolgirl

Iraqi authorities have started criminal proceedings against a German teenager who was captures after joining the Islamic State group in Iraq.

Linda Wenzel, 16, was formally charged along with three other German women following their capture during the fall of Mosul in July, German newspaper Der Spiegel reported.

The move marks a blow to the efforts of German authorities who had been working to have the women extradited back to their home country.

Despite the development, German diplomats are said to have remained confident that the 16-year-old will not be sentenced to death, Der Spiegel reported.

They did, however, say it was possible that the 16-year-old could serve a lengthy jail term in Iraq.

When Iraqi forces closed in on the IS group in their former stonghold of Mosul in July, footage emerged showing Wenzel being paraded by a crowd of Iraqi soldiers.

The teenager appears visibly shaken and dishevelled in the video, which was reportedly recorded after wenzel and around 20 other foreign IS members barricaded themselves in a tunnel with weapons and explosives.

Wenzel is thought to have joined the IS group after converting to Islam and marrying a militant who was fighting to the group in Iraq.

She disappeared from her hometown in Pulsnitz, near Dresden, in July last year.