ERBIL () - Six French nationals are due to stand trial in Iraq on Sunday as Iraqi authorities take responsibility for prosecuting thousands of suspected members of the ISIS terrorist group transferred from neighboring Syria.
Iraq’s prisons, already holding large numbers of ISIS suspects, have received thousands of additional detainees transferred from Syria since last year.
An Iraqi judicial source told AFP on Thursday that six French nationals were scheduled to stand trial on Sunday. Their identities have not been disclosed, but they are among 47 French citizens transferred from Syria last year.
The larger group includes Adrien Guihal, who claimed responsibility for the 2016 Nice attack on behalf of ISIS.
ISIS swept across Syria and Iraq in 2014, committing massacres and forcing women and girls into sexual slavery.
Iraq, backed by US-led forces, declared victory over ISIS in 2017, while the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) ultimately defeated the group in Syria two years later.
Iraq continues to deal with the legacy of ISIS, including mass graves and testimonies documenting the group’s brutality that have yet to be investigated.
For years, Iraqi courts have issued hundreds of death sentences and life sentences against people convicted of terrorism offenses, including foreign fighters.
The prosecution of foreign ISIS suspects in Iraq remains contentious.
In 2019, 11 French nationals received death sentences that were later commuted to life imprisonment.
Some human rights groups have criticized terrorism trials in Iraq, describing them as rushed and lacking due process.
In France, which has faced repeated attacks by the ISIS terrorist group, the repatriation of ISIS suspects and their family members has remained a contentious issue.
French lawyers on Thursday called for the French nationals detained in Iraq to be repatriated, warning that they could face the death penalty.
In February, more than 5,700 ISIS detainees from more than 60 countries were transferred to Iraq by the United States after years of detention in Syrian prisons overseen by Kurdish-led forces.
At least five French nationals were among those transferred, some of whom were minors when their parents joined ISIS.
Earlier this month, Iraq’s judiciary said it had completed their interrogations and that the cases would proceed to trial.
The judiciary also said 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 foreign nationals from Finland and the United States to their respective countries after they were cleared of suspicion.
