Iraq condemns fourth French Daesh member to death

BAGHDAD — An Iraqi court on Monday condemned a fourth French citizen to death for joining the Daesh group, a day after handing capital punishments to three other Frenchmen.

Mustapha Merzoughi, 37, was sentenced to death by hanging, according to an AFP journalist at the court.

“The evidence and the confession show that you joined the Daesh group, that you worked in its military branch,” the judge told Merzoughi before handing down his sentence.

In recent months Iraq has taken custody of thousands of extremists including foreigners captured in neighbouring Syria by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) during the battle to destroy the Daesh “caliphate”.

The Iraqi judiciary said earlier in May that it had tried and sentenced more than 500 suspected foreign members of Daesh since the start of 2018.

“I’m not guilty of crimes and killings. I’m guilty of going [to Syria],” Merzoughi, wearing a yellow prison uniform, told the judge.

“I ask for forgiveness from the people of Iraq, Syria, France and the families of the victims.”

Merzoughi told investigators he had served in the French army from 2000 to 2010, including a tour in Afghanistan in 2009.

In France, he lived in the south-western city of Toulouse, the hometown of brothers Fabien and Jean-Michel Clain who claimed the deadly 2015 attacks in Paris and were killed fighting in Syria.

Passing through Belgium and then Morocco, the French citizen of Tunisian origin underwent “religious and military training in Aleppo”, in northern Syria.

Fellow French terrorist Fodhil Tahar Aouidate also appeared before the court on Monday.

Aouidate, 32, made a first trip to Syria in 2013 and returned in 2014 to join Daesh, according to the French judiciary.

Their trial came a day after an Iraqi court sentenced three French citizens to death for joining Daesh, making them the first French terrorists to be handed capital punishment.

Captured in Syria by the SDF, Kevin Gonot, Leonard Lopez and Salim Machou were transferred to Iraq for trial. They have 30 days to appeal.