ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — The Nineveh Criminal Court has sentenced a Yezidi “confessed” member of the Islamic State (ISIS) to death in the genocide against the ethno-religious minority — without publicly providing the person’s name or any details of the “terrorist’s” identity.
“The primary body in the Nineveh Criminal Court sentenced a terrorist to hanging for many crimes he has committed against the Yezidis…” a statement from the High Judicial Council of Iraq’s media office read on Monday.
The council is based in Baghdad, but the court is in Nineveh. It did not provide a name or personal details of the individual.
The confessed, described a Yezidi convert to ISIS, was sentenced based on Article 4 that deals with Iraqi anti-terrorism laws.
The sentenced person confessed to “carrying arms and intimidating citizens of the Yezidi component” to convert to Islam. According to the statement, the confessed participated in the ISIS siege of the southern Shingal village of Kocho and the ensuing genocide in August 2014.
On August 15, 2014, after days of besieging the southern Shingal village of Kocho, and after initially giving Yezidis the choice to leave their homeland or convert, ISIS reneged on its word to the Yezidis and committed a genocide against their people.
The extremist group separated men from the women and children. The elderly women and the men were killed, and many of the women were taken as sex slaves and the children taken to ISIS camps for indoctrination, including weapon training.
The statement did not clarify whether the man had converted at the arrival of ISIS or before the arrival of ISIS.
Iraq’s judiciary has been accused of violating due process and forcing confessions from suspects. Confessions, whether in earnest or coerced, are used frequently in courts across the Middle East to prove one’s suspected.
Some court trials dealing with ISIS suspects have lasted little more than 10 minutes in Iraq.
Many ISIS members, foreigners and locals, have been executed.
Iraq has been willing to try foreign ISIS fighters and put them on trial.
US President Donald Trump has called on all member states of the US-led Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS to repatriate suspected ISIS members. Most linger in Syria in Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) facilities. The SDF says it lacks the resources to try ISIS suspects and has also called on foreign countries to repatriate their citizens.