UN Committee Urged to Intervene as French ISIS Members Face Death Penalty in Iraq

Brahim Nejara, Bilel Kabaoui, Léonard Lopez, Fodil Tahar Aouidate and Mourad Delhomme, sentenced to death in June, have been detained since October 2019 in the high-security Rassafat prison in Iraq. Faced with the urgency of the situation for these prisoners, their lawyer, Nabil Boudi, is fighting for their repatriation. In this regard, the lawyer pleads for the committee, based in Geneva, to help take provisional protection measures. By filing this appeal, the Council also wants to prevent irreparable harm from being caused to the applicants, victims of a lack of protection from the French authorities, reports AFP.

Highly upset by the treatment his clients are receiving in Iraq, the lawyer has made it known that the French are suffering inhuman and degrading treatment in Iraqi prisons. According to Me Nabil Boudi, France is fully aware of this situation and is not acting accordingly to put an end to it. While regretting the negligence displayed by France in this file, the lawyer argues that consular protection should "be granted to all French citizens, without exception".

Determined to get out of this precarious situation, the five prisoners have sent, through their lawyer, a letter published by the French daily Libération, to their families. In this correspondence, they reported on their situation, stating that they are "facing incessant, verbal and physical threats from the militias working" in the prison. According to these prisoners, some of them have been tortured and humiliated. They also add that the pressure is so strong that some of them have isolated themselves and started talking to themselves, saying that death is preferable to them.

In his report filed with the Torture Committee, the lawyer mentioned the use of ’falaka’ methods to which his clients are subjected, which consist of beating suspects on the soles of their feet, as well as ’waterboarding’ or simulated drowning, revealed by Human Rights Watch. For now, France does not plan to repatriate these jihadists, given the discourse of its representative who visited the jihadists in Iraq. As for the National Consultative Commission on Human Rights (CNCDH), it has called on Paris to repatriate all its nationals.