BAGHDAD -- Iraq on Wednesday handed over 188 Turkish children of suspected Islamic State militants to Turkey, while a court sentenced two former Islamic State members to death for joining the extremist group. They included one Frenchman and a Tunisian resident of France, raising the number of French citizens condemned to death in the past week to seven.
The two developments Wednesday point to the legacy left behind by the Islamic State and its so-called caliphate that once spanned a third of both Iraq and Syria. Besides the atrocities and devastation the group wreaked, thousands of foreigners -- including hundreds of children born to parents who lived under or fought with the Islamic State -- have been caught in Iraq's justice system.
At Baghdad airport, the 188 Turkish children were handed over to Turkish government representatives in the presence of Iraqi government officials and the U.N. children's agency, Judge Abdul Sattar Bayraqdar said.
The French citizens are among 12 Frenchmen whom the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces handed over to Iraq in January. The Kurdish-led group spearheaded the fight against the Islamic State group in Syria and has handed over to Iraq hundreds of suspected Islamic State members in recent months.
On Wednesday, the Iraqi criminal court in Baghdad's Karkh district sentenced a Frenchman identified as Yassin Sakkam, 29, who left France in 2014 to fight with the Islamic State. The court also sentenced to death Mohammed Berriri, a 24-year-old who told the judge that he worked as a sentry at a militant camp and did not take part in any battles in Syria, and never traveled to Iraq.
The sentencings in Iraq take place during controversy about the legal treatment of Iraqis and foreigners suspected of joining the Islamic State. Human-rights groups are concerned that they are being rushed through Iraqi counterterrorism courts in trials that raise questions over whether justice is being done.
Although European Islamic State members have been sentenced to death, none has actually been executed in Iraq. France has said Iraq does have jurisdiction to put the Frenchmen on trial, but said it will fight the death penalty.
A Section on 05/30/2019