Staff Writer With AFP

Iraq sentences to death 11 French ISIS adherents transferred from Syria

A Baghdad court on Monday, June 3 sentenced to death two more French nationals for belonging to the Islamic State group, leaving all 11 Frenchmen transferred from Syria facing the gallows in Iraq. Bilel Kabaoui, 32, and Mourad Delhomme, 41, join nine other French citizens and a Tunisian national already on death row after trials over the past week. They have 30 days to appeal the sentences. Captured by the Syrian Democratic Forces, the French nationals were transferred from Syria in February. Iraq has sentenced more than 500 suspected foreign members of ISIS since the start of 2018. Its courts have condemned many to life in prison and others to death, although no foreign ISIS members have yet been executed. Iraqi law provides for the death penalty, which is carried out by hanging, for anyone joining a “terrorist group” – even those who did not take up arms. A group of prominent French lawyers said earlier Monday that the execution of French ISIS members on death row would be a disgrace for France. “We have taken a historic risk, which, if it is realized, will leave an indelible stain on the mandate of [President] Emmanuel Macron,” said the lawyers, including some …