Belgian Court Opens First Genocide Trial over Crimes against Yezidis
Sammy Djedou, a former member of ISIS, is believed to have been killed in a U.S.-led airstrike in Raqqa in 2016. However, Belgian authorities never received official confirmation of his death and proceeded with the case.
ERBIL (Kurdistan24) — A Belgian jihadist accused of taking part in the genocide against the Kurdish Yezidi religious minority in Iraq and Syria went on trial in absentia in Brussels on Thursday, marking Belgium’s first prosecution related to mass crimes committed against the Yezidis.
Sammy Djedou, a former member of ISIS, is believed to have been killed in a U.S.-led airstrike in Raqqa in 2016. However, Belgian authorities never received official confirmation of his death and proceeded with the case.
Djedou faces charges of genocide for allegedly participating in the ISIS campaign to exterminate the Yezidi community beginning in 2014. He is also charged with crimes against humanity, including the rape and sexual enslavement of Yezidi women and girls.
Investigators have identified three Yezidi victims, two of whom were minors at the time of the alleged crimes between November 2014 and December 2016. Two of the victims have joined the case as civil plaintiffs and are expected to testify about their experiences during the week-long trial.
The prosecution’s case relies heavily on evidence collected by journalists and humanitarian organizations operating in former ISIS-held areas following the group’s territorial collapse in 2019.
Born in Brussels in 1989 to a Belgian mother and an Ivorian father, Djedou converted to Islam at 15 and traveled to Syria in 2012. He later rose within ISIS ranks and is believed to have been involved in planning external attacks in Europe.
Djedou was previously convicted in Belgium to 13 years in prison for leading a terrorist organization in 2021. He was also implicated in support networks linked to the 2015 Paris attacks, though he did not receive additional jail time in that case.
The Yezidis — based in the Kurdistan Region — suffered mass killings, forced displacement, and widespread sexual enslavement when IS forces overran the Sinjar region in August 2014. The United Nations has recognized the atrocities as genocide.
Prosecutors argue that ISIS institutionalized the enslavement of Yezidi women, transforming sexual exploitation into a structured system that became a significant part of the group’s economy.
The trial is seen as an important step in ongoing international efforts to secure accountability for the Yezidi genocide.
