BAGHDAD: An Iraqi court on Sunday sentenced three French citizens to death after they were found guilty of joining the Islamic State group, the first Islamic State members from France to be handed capital punishment, a court official said.
Its courts have condemned many to life in prison and others to death, although no foreign Islamic State members have yet been executed.The trials have been criticised by rights groups, which say they often rely on evidence obtained through torture. The remaining 12 were put on trial under Iraq's counterterrorism law, which can dole out the death penalty to anyone found guilty of joining a"terrorist" group, even if they were not explicitly fighting.Gonot, who fought for Islamic State before being arrest in Syria with his mother, wife, and half-brother, has also been sentenced in absentia by a French court to nine years in prison, according to the French Terrorism Analysis Center .
Iraq declared victory over Islamic State in late 2017 and began trying foreigners accused of joining the jihadists the following year. Among those sentenced to life in prison are 58-year-old Frenchman Lahcen Ammar Gueboudj and two other French nationals.