Six French nationals went on trial on Sunday, as Iraq moves to prosecute thousands of suspected ISIS members. Iraq's prisons, already packed with ISIS suspects, have received thousands more detainees transferred since last year from Syria. The trial of the six French nationals began on Sunday morning. An AFP correspondent in the courtroom reported that the judge set the next hearing for October 5. During the nearly three-hour session, the judge read the investigation findings, which were also shown on a screen, including the suspects' testimonies. The investigation found that they joined ISIS after travelling first to Turkey and then Syria. The judge then inquired about their legal representation before setting the new hearing date. The suspects include Charlie Sun, Kamel Ben Mbarak, Najib Megherbi, Mehdi Ismael and Ibrahim Azahaf, who arrived in Syria when he was 14 years old, according to their French lawyers. Among them was also Noureddine El Mansouri, who was stripped of his French nationality in June 2026, though the decision is still under appeal. The suspects are part of a group of 47 French citizens transferred from Syria last year. The larger group includes Adrien Guihal, who claimed responsibility for the 2016 Nice attack for ISIS. The group swept across Syria and Iraq in 2014, committing massacres and forcing women and girls into sexual slavery. French lawyers on Thursday urged the repatriation of the French nationals detained in Iraq, warning that they could face the death penalty. In February, over 5,700 ISIS detainees from more than 60 countries were transferred to Iraq by the United States, after years held in Syrian prisons overseen by Kurdish-led forces. Among them were at least five French nationals, some of whom were minors when their parents joined ISIS. Earlier this month, Iraq's judiciary said it had completed their interrogation and that the cases would proceed to trial. It added that more than 450 Syrians would be released after investigations found no evidence warranting legal action against them. In April, Iraq handed over two detained foreigners, from Finland and the United States, to their countries after they were cleared of suspicion.
