French ISIL suspects stand trial in Iraq

BAGHDAD

(AP Photo)

Six French nationals went on trial on Sept. 20, as Iraq moves to prosecute thousands of suspected members of the ISIL terrorist organization.

Iraq’s prisons, already packed with ISIL suspects, have received thousands more detainees transferred since last year from neighboring Syria.

The trial of the six French nationals began on Sept. 20 morning, a judicial source told AFP.

An AFP correspondent reported seeing prisoner transport vehicles and French diplomatic cars arriving at the court building in Baghdad.

The identities of the six suspects remain unclear, but they are part of a group of 47 French citizens transferred from Syria last year.

The larger group includes Adrien Guihal, who claimed responsibility for the 2016 Nice attack for ISIL.

The group swept across Syria and Iraq in 2014, committing massacres and forcing women and girls into sexual slavery.

Iraq proclaimed victory over ISIL in 2017, and the U.S.-back forces ultimately defeated the group in Syria two years later.

Iraq is nonetheless still reckoning with the legacy left behind by the group, with mass graves and testimonies of ISIL brutality yet to be investigated.

For years, its courts have handed down hundreds of execution orders and life sentences to those convicted of terrorism offences, including foreign fighters.

In 2019, 11 French nationals received death sentences that were later commuted to life in prison.

Some human rights groups have denounced terrorism trials in Iraq as rushed and lacking due process.

French lawyers last week urged the repatriation of the French nationals detained in Iraq, warning that they could face the death penalty.