Court sentences ISIS member to death for role in Yazidi abductions

SINJAR — Iraq’s Karkh Criminal Court on Thursday issued a death sentence for a member of the Islamic State found guilty of participating in terrorist operations and the abduction of Yazidi civilians during the group’s 2014 assault on Sinjar district.

According to a statement from the judiciary’s media office, the convict was involved in both armed attacks and the kidnapping of Yazidis as ISIS overran the region in one of the group’s most brutal campaigns.

The 2014 offensive on Sinjar resulted in the mass killing of Yazidis and the abduction of thousands, many of whom were subjected to slavery, forced conversion, or used as human shields. The assault is widely recognized as a major humanitarian crisis and has been described by the United Nations as a potential genocide.

The Islamic State, which declared a so-called caliphate in 2014, was expelled from Iraq in 2017 by Iraqi forces and Kurdish Peshmerga, with backing from a U.S.-led coalition. Although the group lost its final stronghold in Syria in 2019, ISIS remnants continue to threaten security in remote areas of Iraq and neighboring countries.