A Baghdad court has sentenced a seventh French jihadist to death for joining the Islamic State group, like reported by ekurd.net.
Yassin Sakkam was among 12 French citizens transferred to Iraqi authorities in January by a US-backed Kurdish-led force fighting the jihadist group in neighbouring Syria.
The 29-year-old is now among seven French jihadists facing death row in Iraq for belonging to Islamic State.
Also facing death row are Salim Machou, Kevin Gonot, Leonard Lopez, Brahim Nejara and Mustapha Merzoughi.
In court Sakkam admitted to being paid $70 (62 euros) a month by the terrorist group and said: ‘I admit to having sworn allegiance’.
Sakkam, who was dressed in a yellow prison uniform and sported a closely cropped goatee, said he regretted his decision to join IS, and asked to be pardoned.
Iraq has taken custody of thousands of jihadists in recent months after they were captured by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces during the battle to destroy the IS ‘caliphate’.
They include hundreds of foreigners suspected of IS membership, raising the question of whether suspected IS jihadists should be tried in the region or repatriated.
France has long insisted its adult citizens captured in Iraq or Syria must face trial locally, while reiterating its opposition to capital punishment.
Iraqi law provides for the death penalty for anyone joining a ‘terrorist group’ – even those who did not take up arms.
Sakkam left France in late 2014 to fight for IS, posting pictures online of himself carrying arms and speaking to multiple media outlets about the group.
He became one of the most notorious jihadists from France, which has been seeking his arrest since 2016.
Kurdish authorities of Syrian Kurdistan detained him in Syria in 2017.
His brother Karim carried out a suicide attack at the Iraqi-Jordanian border in 2015, according to the French Center for the Analysis of Terrorism.
Also on Wednesday, an Iraqi court sentenced 24-year-old Tunisian Mohammed Berriri to death for joining IS, after a hearing lasting less than an hour.
Berriri, also dressed in a yellow prison uniform, admitted to joining IS, saying he thought it was ‘defending the weak’, but said he now regretted doing so.
Sakkam and the six other French citizens handed death sentences in recent days have 30 days to appeal.
The remaining five French suspects face trial in the coming days.
Iraqi courts have dealt with a steady flow of jihadists – with 500 foreign men and women already found guilty of having joined IS. None of those sentenced to death have so far been executed.
The trials have been criticised by human rights groups, which say they often rely on evidence obtained through torture.
In a statement sent to AFP, a group representing the families of French jihadists asked the government in Paris to ‘do everything possible to stop this fatal chain of death sentences’ and to try them ‘on our soil’.
On Tuesday, Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said France was stepping up efforts to stop Iraq executing those convicted.
France’s rights ombudsman on Wednesday said the country must stop the ‘inhumane treatment’ of children of jihadists stranded in Syria who are not being allowed to come to the country.
Meanwhile, Iraq repatriated to Turkey on Wednesday 188 children of Turks accused of belonging to the Islamic State group, a capital offence in Iraq, the judiciary said.
The move follows the repatriation to Tajikistan late last month of 84 children of nationals convicted by Iraqi courts of membership of IS or other jihadist groups.
Kurdish authorities in Syrian Kurdistan (Rojava) on Wednesday handed over 148 Uzbek women and children linked to the Islamic State group to diplomats from the Central Asian country for repatriation, officials said.
That came after dozens of children were flown to Russia and after France and Germany repatriated the children of women nationals detained in Iraq.
Baghdad declared victory over IS in 2017 but the group’s cross-border ‘caliphate’ was only eliminated when Syrian Kurdish fighters conquered its last scrap of territory in Syria in March.
U.S. has for years supported the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the fight against the Islamic State group in Syria, as part of an international anti-jihadist coalition dominated by the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG). But U.S. President Donald Trump abruptly announced the pullout from Syria.
The Kurdish PYD and its powerful military wing YPG/YPJ considered the most effective fighting force against IS. The YPG, which make up the backbone of the SDF forces, has seized swathes of Syria from Islamic State.
