Six French ISIS suspects face trial in Iraq

Iraqi security forces lead suspected ISIS members for questioning after they were transferred from Syria to Iraq, at al-Karkh Central Prison in Baghdad, Iraq. Photo: Hadi Mizban/AP Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) – An Iraqi court launched on Sunday the trial of six French nationals suspected of membership in the terrorist group ISIS. A member of the Supreme Judicial Council warned that the suspects might face the death sentence if convicted of crimes against Iraq and its people. According to two court legal sources, the defendants were among 47 French ISIS inmates relocated from prisons in northeast Syria in 2025 as part of an operation authorized by US forces and Iraqi officials. According to Reuters, officials from the French embassy in Iraq were present at the Baghdad criminal court. The six inmates being tried under Iraq’s counter-terrorism law arrived in the court in a prison van accompanied by a convoy of Humvees carrying Iraqi Special Forces officers. The suspects were wearing yellow prison jumpsuits. The judge in charge postponed the hearing until October 5 to allow defense lawyers to study the case files. Abbas al-Maliki, a court-appointed solicitor for one of the prisoners, told Reuters that his client was facing allegations of ISIS membership. In 2014, the terrorist group ISIS took control of large areas in Iraq and Syria before being defeated in 2017. Over five million Iraqis had to flee the governorates of Nineveh, Salah al-Din, parts of Kirkuk, Diyala, and Anbar because of ISIS control over these areas in 2014. Although Iraq declared in late 2017 that all of its regions were free of ISIS, the government continues to conduct security operations to hunt out any remaining members of the terrorist group. Earlier this month, the Supreme Judicial Council of Iraq announced that it officially concluded the interrogation process for 5,704 ISIS detainees who were moved from northeastern Syria earlier this year, preparing them for trial. The verified detainees originate from 67 different nationalities, including 3,497 Syrians and 474 Iraqis.