A screenshot taken from a propaganda video released on March 17, 2014, by al-Furqan Media, the media arm of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), reportedly shows fighters of the organization brandishing their weapons while standing on a vehicle bearing the group’s characteristic jihadist flag, at an undisclosed location in Al-Anbar province. Photo provided to AFP.
Iraqi intelligence services are questioning 47 French nationals who were handed over to Baghdad a month ago by Syrian Kurdish forces for their alleged involvement in crimes committed in Iraq by the Islamic State (IS), officials said Friday.
“Iraq has received 47 French nationals from the Syrian Democratic Forces [SDF] and they are currently under investigation,” a security official told AFP, speaking anonymously due to lack of authorization to speak to the media. “They belong to Daesh [the Arabic acronym for the jihadist group],” he added.
The SDF, U.S. partners leading an international anti-jihadist coalition, were at the forefront of the fight against IS, defeated in 2017 in Iraq and 2019 in Syria. Thousands of people suspected of belonging to IS, including hundreds of foreigners, are held in prisons and camps administered by the SDF, the armed branch of the Kurdish administration in northeastern Syria.
According to the Iraqi official, Iraqi security services have documented evidence and testimonies from Iraqi suspects implicating the French nationals in “crimes against Iraqis.” “They will be tried according to Iraqi law.”
The Iraqi National Intelligence Service confirmed that the French nationals will appear before the Iraqi judiciary, noting that they are “wanted by the courts for participation in terrorist crimes committed in Iraq” following IS’s conquest of large parts of Iraqi territory in 2014. Some are also alleged to have taken part in “activities threatening Iraqi national security from abroad.”
Iraqi courts have already handed down hundreds of death sentences and life imprisonments for “terrorism,” in trials criticized by NGOs as summary proceedings. In 2019, eleven French nationals were sentenced to death and remain on death row.
The French anti-terrorism prosecutor specified that “Iraq, a sovereign state, requested that Syrian Kurdish authorities hand over IS jihadists who committed offenses on its territory.” Within this framework, “the French nationals detained in Syrian Kurdistan were transferred to Iraq,” he added.
“The France continues to outsource its justice to a country that practices the death penalty and where torture is routine,” reacted the Collectif des familles unies on X, a group representing relatives of people detained in Syria.
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