Iraqi court hands French, Russian women life sentence for IS membership
A French woman and two Russian women were among those on Tuesday sentenced by an Iraqi court to life in prison for their affiliation to the Islamic State (IS).
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – A French woman and two Russian women were among those on Tuesday sentenced by an Iraqi court to life in prison for their affiliation to the Islamic State (IS).
The Central Penal Court in Baghdad condemned 29-year-old Djamila Boutoutaou, a French citizen of Algerian origin, to life imprisonment for joining IS.
She told the court her husband, Mohammed Nassereddine, had forced her to join the extremist group, claiming he tricked her by saying they were going on holiday in Turkey before she discovered he was an IS member.
According to Boutoutaou’s account, her husband as well as her son Abdallah were killed near the group’s former stronghold of Mosul in Iraq. She said neighbors took her to Tal Afar, west of Mosul, where she surrendered to Peshmerga forces.
The Iraqi court also sentenced two Russian women to life in prison for their affiliation to IS.
Four other women, including three Azerbaijani nationals and one woman from Kyrgyzstan, were handed the death penalty for their membership to the militant group.
Earlier this month, a Baghdad court handed the death penalty to six Turkish women for their membership to IS while another Turkish woman was issued a life sentence.
Iraq declared victory over IS in December 2017 after years of fierce fighting against the group. Since then, Iraqi courts have begun prosecuting foreign IS militants.
According to Iraq’s counterterrorism law, aiding or membership to the extremist group carries the penalty of life in prison or death.
Following the emergence of IS in Iraq and Syria in 2014, thousands of foreign nationals joined the militant group. Accompanying them were women who came from different parts of the world.