Eleven French jihadists convicted in Iraq requested their transfer to France

“Iraqi law allows foreign detainees to submit a request to the Iraqi authorities to finish their period of detention in their country. Ten French detainees out of eleven presented such a request and signed this document this summer by putting their fingerprint on it and they are waiting for a response,” an official from the Ministry of Justice in Iraq confirmed to AFP.

An eleventh jihadist did not sign this document, but his lawyer, Matthieu Bagard, presented a request to the authorities on his behalf.

“The French side refuses the Iraqi requests and does not want to repatriate the convicts,” however, another official from the Ministry of Justice in Iraq told AFP. However, “the Iraqi authorities used all means to convince France to recover their (nationals) convicts – with the exception of those sentenced to the death penalty.”

Asked several times about this issue, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in France never responded to AFP.

Three other French people targeted by anti-terrorism investigations

After the fall of ISIS, eleven jihadists were sentenced to death by hanging in June 2019 in Iraq. On May 30, 2023, the Iraqi courts commuted this sentence to life imprisonment.

For its part, the French justice system issued arrest warrants against them, these men still being targeted by anti-terrorism investigations in France, but these warrants were not executed.

Three other French people detained in Iraq, including two women, are also the target of anti-terrorism investigations, according to the French Ministry of Justice.

For one of them, “the transfer request was submitted to the ministry in Baghdad”, told AFP her lawyer, Marie Dosé, who specified that a team of lawyers would go next week to Iraq to visit French jihadists – this will be their third visit since fall 2023.

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With AFP