Trial opens in Baghdad for six French nationals accused of IS membership

A trial began in Baghdad on Sunday morning for six French nationals accused by Iraqi authorities of membership in the terrorist organisation known as the Islamic State (IS) group. If convicted of crimes "against Iraq and the Iraqi people," the men could face the death penalty. The next hearing has been scheduled for 5 October.

Defence lawyers are pushing for the men to be repatriated to France, arguing the trial is moving too fast to allow for a proper defence.

The six were part of a larger group of 47 French nationals transferred from Syria to Iraq last year, joining numerous other suspected IS members already held there. That group also included the man who claimed responsibility for the 2016 Nice attack. Investigators say the six travelled through Turkey into Syria before joining IS, and were captured by Syrian Kurdish forces between 2018 and 2019 as the group's self-declared "caliphate" collapsed. After being transferred to Iraq last year, they were charged with membership in a terrorist organisation.

IS fighters carried out massacres across Syria and Iraq in 2014 and subjected many women and girls to sexual slavery. Iraq, supported by a US-led coalition, declared victory over the group in 2017, with Kurdish-led Syrian forces announcing its defeat in Syria two years later. Iraqi courts have since issued hundreds of death sentences and life terms for terrorism offences, including to foreign fighters — in 2019, death sentences for 11 French nationals were commuted to life imprisonment. In February, the United States transferred more than 5,700 suspected IS members from over 60 countries to Iraq, and in April Iraq released two acquitted foreign detainees, from Finland and the US.

The trial's opening follows a visit to France by Iraqi Prime Minister Ali Al-Zaïdi on 13-14 September, during which the two countries pledged to deepen security cooperation and jointly prevent any resurgence of the Daesh group.