A court in Iraq has sentenced three men to death after finding them guilty of joining Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS), officials confirmed on Sunday.
A court official, who spoke to the press on condition of anonymity, said the trio were sentenced “after it was proven that they were members of the terrorist Islamic State organization.”
The men have 30 days to appeal their conviction.
The three were reportedly captured in Syria by US-backed forces before being brought to Iraq for trial.
While hundreds of foreign fighters have been tried in Iraq for IS membership and activities, none have yet been executed. These are the first French members to be sentenced to death by an Iraqi court.
According to French government figures, up to 1,700 French citizens are believed to have traveled to Iraq and Syria in the four years up to 2018 to fight with IS. It’s not clear how many of the survivors would be repatriated to France, but in April the government said it would not move ahead with earlier plans to bring former fighters and their families back and instead will consider the return of children on a case-by-case basis.
Earlier this year French Secretary of State Laurent Nunez said that any jihadists returning to France will face prosecution, telling BFMTV “they will all be put on trial and incarcerated.”