French IS suspects stand trial in Iraq

The identities of the six Islamic State group suspects remain unclear, but they are part of a group of 47 French citizens transferred from Syria last year.

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

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

Man who claimed responsibility for 2016 Nice attack among defendants

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 offenses, including foreign fighters.

Over 5,700 IS detainees from more than 60 countries transferred to Iraq

In 2019, 11 French nationals received death sentences that were later commuted to life in prison.

In February, over 5,700 IS detainees from more than 60 countries were transferred to Iraq by the US 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 US, to their countries after they were cleared of suspicion.

Source: Agence France-Presse, Staff, September 20, 2026

"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."
— Oscar Wilde

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