Iraq sentences two more French citizens to death for joining Daesh

An Iraqi court has sentenced two more French citizens to death after they were found guilty of joining the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group and involvement in acts of terror across the conflict-ridden Arab country and neighboring Syria, bringing the total number of former French terrorists condemned to death this week to six.

The men sentenced to death on Tuesday were identified as Karam Salam Mohammed el-Harchaoui and Brahim Ali Mansour Nejara. They are among a group of 12 French citizens, who were captured by US-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in Syria and handed over to Iraq earlier this year. 

PressTV-Iraq sentences Belgian Daesh terrorist to death

Iraq's Central Criminal Court has sentenced a Belgian man to death by hanging for his membership in Daesh.

El-Harchaoui, 33, lived in Belgium before he left for Syria in 2014. He was wounded in one of the battles he fought alongside Daesh militants in Syria.

His wife told The Associated Press he joined the terror group in Syria in 2014, was sent to Iraq to fight, escaped, traveled back to Syria's northeastern town of al-Shaddadah, then to Raqqah where he was wounded in an airstrike in 2016. He was jailed for fleeing, and then released. The two later met and married in October 2015, after which he was arrested again.

PressTV-Iraq sentences another French to death for joining Daesh

An Iraqi court has sentenced a fourth French national for joining Daesh and committing crimes.

Nejara, 23, helped run a network that apparently recruited Europeans to join Daesh. He appeared in a video titled "Paris has collapsed" a week after a series of violent attacks targeting cafes and a concert hall in the French capital city of Paris on November 13, 2015, which took the lives of at least 129 people. The video shows a fictitious destruction of the Eiffel Tower, according to Jean-Charles Brisard of the Center of the Analysis of Terrorism.

Nejara, speaking before the judge, said that he was forced to make the video because Daesh was looking for someone who could speak French. He said he was threatened with prison, when he requested to appear masked in the video, before the militant outfit agreed to his request.

PressTV-Iraq sentences 3 French men to death for joining Daesh

An Iraqi court has sentenced three French citizens to death for joining the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group.

On Sunday, a criminal court in the Iraqi capital Baghdad sentenced three French Daesh members to death. A fourth was handed down the death sentence on Monday. They can appeal their sentences within a month.

Meanwhile, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on Tuesday that his government is working to spare the French men sentenced to death from execution.

He said the Daesh militants should be tried where they committed their crimes.

Iraq gives French woman life over Daesh membership

An Iraqi court has sentenced a French woman to life in prison over alleged membership of the Daesh terror group.

“We are multiplying efforts to avoid the death penalty for these ... French people,” he said on France-Inter radio station. He didn't elaborate, but said he had held talks with Iraqi President Adel Abdul Mahdi about the case.

Iraq has been trying hundreds of suspected Daesh members, many of whom were detained as the outfit’s strongholds crumbled throughout Iraq. This includes hundreds of foreigners.

Hundreds of European nationals traveled to the Middle East to join Daesh after the terror group captured large swathes of territory in Iraq and neighboring Syria in mid-2014.

Former Iraqi prime minister Haider al-Abadi declared the end of military operations against Daesh in the country on December 9, 2017.

On July 10 that year, he had formally declared victory over Daesh in Mosul, which served as the terrorists’ main urban stronghold in Iraq.

In the run-up to Mosul's liberation, Iraqi army soldiers and volunteer Hashd al-Sha’abi fighters had made sweeping gains against Daesh.

Iraqi forces took control of eastern Mosul in January 2017 after 100 days of fighting, and launched the battle in the west on February 19 last year.

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