Iraq: French Daesh suspects to stand trial

Six French nationals are due to stand trial in Iraq on September 20, 2026, as the country assumes responsibility for prosecuting thousands of suspected Daesh group members.

Iraq’s prisons, already packed with Daesh suspects, have received thousands more detainees transferred since last year from neighboring Syria.

An Iraqi judicial source told AFP on September 17 that six French nationals were scheduled to stand trial on September 20.

Their identities remain unclear, but they are part of a group of 47 French citizens transferred from Syria last year.

The larger group includes Adrien Guihal, who claimed responsibility for the 2016 Nice attack for Daesh.

The jihadist group swept across Syria and Iraq in 2014, committing massacres and forcing women and girls into sexual slavery.

Iraq, backed by US-led forces, proclaimed victory over Daesh in 2017, and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces ultimately defeated the group in Syria two years later.

Iraq is nonetheless still reckoning with the legacy left behind by the group, with mass graves and testimonies of Daesh brutality yet to be investigated.

For years, its courts have handed down hundreds of execution orders and life sentences to those convicted of terrorism offenses, including foreign fighters.

In 2019, 11 French nationals received death sentences that were later commuted to life in prison.

Some human rights groups have denounced terrorism trials in Iraq as rushed and lacking due process.

In France, which has been the target of repeated jihadist attacks, repatriation of Daesh suspects and their family members has been a contentious issue.

French lawyers on September 17 urged the repatriation of the French nationals detained in Iraq, warning that they could face the death penalty.

In February, over 5,700 Daesh detainees from more than 60 countries were transferred to Iraq by the United States, after years held in Syrian prisons overseen by Kurdish-led forces.

Among them were at least five French nationals, some of whom were minors when their parents joined Daesh.

Earlier this month, Iraq’s judiciary said it had completed their interrogation and that the cases would proceed to trial.

It added 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 foreigners, from Finland and the United States, to their countries after they were cleared of suspicion.