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An Iraqi court sentenced seven French nationals to prison on Tuesday for belonging to the Islamic State group.
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Iraq’s Supreme Judicial Council sentenced Lakhdar Sebouai, Adel Bou Aoun, Anas Abdul Rahman, Ziad Ahmad, Mehdi Sida and Benjamin Van Han to life imprisonment, which under Iraqi law is equivalent to 20 years.
The seventh defendant, Amza Benabed, 24, was given a 15-year prison term. They now have 30 days to lodge an appeal.
Under Iraqi law, decisions handed down by criminal courts are also subject to review by the Court of Cassation, whether or not the defendant has filed an appeal.
The seven men were deemed “particularly dangerous because of their role in threatening Iraq’s national security, destabilising Iraq and Syria, and their involvement in inciting terrorist operations in other countries,” a court statement said.
They were among 47 French citizens suspected of links to IS. Held in Syria until last year, they were transferred to Iraq so they could stand trial.
Defence lawyers and representatives of the French embassy were present at the hearing.
Islamic State
The Islamic State group swept across Iraq in 2014, seizing vast swathes of territory in the west of the country and in neighbouring Syria, where it established the seat of its self-proclaimed caliphate.
Although the organisation lost control of these areas several years ago, it still has active cells that periodically carry out attacks in both countries.
Iraq is currently holding thousands of people suspected of belonging to IS. They include more than 5,700 detainees transferred from north-eastern Syria after fighting broke out in January between Syrian government forces and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
The latter had long been guarding the detention centres where jihadist fighters and their families were held following the fall of the caliphate.
Some detainees linked to IS managed to escape during the January clashes, fuelling fears of larger-scale breakouts and leading to the transfer of the remaining prisoners to Iraq.
Iraq’s national security adviser, Qasim al-Aboudi, said earlier this month that Syria had requested the transfer to Damascus of around 4,000 Syrians suspected of belonging to IS so that they could be tried there. Baghdad, however, rejected the request.
Al-Aboudi said that once their trials in Iraq were over, some detainees could be sent back to their country of origin to serve their sentences there. It is still not known whether the convicted French nationals could be repatriated.
In the past, Iraq has frequently executed people convicted of terrorism, prompting criticism from human rights organisations. However, the country does not apply the death penalty to foreign nationals whose home country does not provide for capital punishment.
Additional sources • AP
