BAGHDAD: Human Rights Watch on Friday condemned France’s “outsourcing” of trials of Daesh group suspects to “abusive justice systems,” after seven of its nationals have this week been sentenced to death in Iraq.
Two of them have “alleged that they were tortured or coerced to confess,” the New York-based watchdog said in a statement.
“France and other countries should not be outsourcing management of their terrorism suspects to abusive justice systems,” said HRW’s acting Middle East director, Lama Fakih.
“These countries should not be sitting idly by while their citizens are transferred to a country where their right to a fair trial and protection from torture are undermined.”
A Baghdad court sentenced a Frenchman to death on Wednesday for joining Daesh, bringing to seven the number of French militants on death row in Iraq. Yassine Sakkam’s sentence came despite France reiterating its opposition to capital punishment this week.
In January, a group of 11 French citizens and one Tunisian was handed over to Iraqi authorities by a US-backed force which expelled the militant group from its last bastion in Syria.
Around 1,000 suspected foreign Daesh militants are held in detention by this Kurdish force and Iraq has offered to put them on trial in exchange for millions of dollars, potentially solving a legal conundrum for Western governments.
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France ‘outsourcing’ Daesh trials to Iraq
France ‘outsourcing’ Daesh trials to Iraq
- Around 1,000 suspected foreign Daesh militants are held in detention by this Kurdish force and Iraq has offered to put them on trial in exchange for millions of dollars
RSF drones strike Sudan’s eastern city of Sinja: military source
PORT SUDAN: Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces launched a drone strike Monday on an army base in the southeastern city of Sinja, a military source told AFP.
The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media, said RSF drones “targeted the headquarters of the army’s 17th Infantry Division in Sinja, the capital of Sennar state.”
Since April 2023, the civil war between the army and the RSF has killed tens of thousands and left around 11 million people displaced internally and across borders.
Sennar state has seen relative calm since the army recaptured key Sudanese cities in late 2024 in an offensive that later saw it regain the capital Khartoum.
The Sennar region was last targeted by drones in October.
One resident of Sinja told AFP on Monday that they “heard explosions and anti-aircraft fire.”
Sinja, which is located around 300 kilometers (180 miles) southeast of Khartoum, lies on a road linking army-controlled areas of eastern and central Sudan.
The strike comes a day after the army-aligned government said it had returned to Khartoum following three years operating from its eastern wartime capital of Port Sudan.
The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media, said RSF drones “targeted the headquarters of the army’s 17th Infantry Division in Sinja, the capital of Sennar state.”
Since April 2023, the civil war between the army and the RSF has killed tens of thousands and left around 11 million people displaced internally and across borders.
Sennar state has seen relative calm since the army recaptured key Sudanese cities in late 2024 in an offensive that later saw it regain the capital Khartoum.
The Sennar region was last targeted by drones in October.
One resident of Sinja told AFP on Monday that they “heard explosions and anti-aircraft fire.”
Sinja, which is located around 300 kilometers (180 miles) southeast of Khartoum, lies on a road linking army-controlled areas of eastern and central Sudan.
The strike comes a day after the army-aligned government said it had returned to Khartoum following three years operating from its eastern wartime capital of Port Sudan.
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