French IS suspects stand trial in Iraq

Six French nationals went on trial on Sunday, as Iraq moves to prosecute thousands of suspected Islamic State group members.

Iraq's prisons, already packed with IS suspects, have received thousands more detainees transferred since last year from neighbouring Syria.

The trial of the six French nationals began on Sunday 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 IS.

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

Iraq, backed by US-led forces, proclaimed victory over IS in 2017, and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic 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 IS 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.

- Contentious issue -

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.

In France, which has been the target of repeated jihadist attacks, repatriation of IS suspects and their family members has been a contentious issue.

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

In February, over 5,700 IS detainees from more than 60 countries were transferred to Iraq by the United States, after years held in Syrian prisons overseen by Kurdish-led forces.

Among them were at least five French nationals, some of whom were minors when their parents joined IS.

Earlier this month, Iraq's judiciary said it had completed their interrogation and that the cases would proceed to trial.

It added that more than 450 Syrians would be released after investigations found no evidence warranting legal action against them.

In April, Iraq handed over two detained foreigners, from Finland and the United States, to their countries after they were cleared of suspicion.