A court in Iraq has sentenced 19 Russian women to life in prison for joining the Islamic State terrorist group.

The Central Criminal Court in Baghdad, which deals with terrorism cases, also sentenced six women from Azerbaijan and four from Tajikistan to life in prison on Sunday on the same charge.

Most of the defendants told the court they had been brought to Iraq against their will from Turkey by IS fighters.

Earlier this month, the Russian Foreign Ministry said between 50 and 70 "Russian-speaking women" were being held in Iraq, along with more than 100 of their children.

IS took over nearly one third of Iraq in a blistering 2014 offensive, seizing control of the country's second largest city, Mosul, among others.

Baghdad declared military victory over the jihadists in December, after expelling them from all urban centers.

Experts estimate that Iraq is holding 20,000 people in jail over suspected IS membership. There is no official figure.

Iraqi courts have sentenced to death a total of more than 300 people, including dozens of foreigners, for belonging to IS. </s> Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) Iraqi judiciary sentenced on Tuesday seven foreign women of various nationalities to death and life in jail over affiliation with Islamic State militants, news reports said.

The Supreme Judicial Council said in a statement that the Central Criminal Court sentenced three Azerbaijanis and one Kergyz to death, while issuing a life sentence for two Russians and a French national.

Earlier news reports quoted AFP identifying the French nationa as 29-year-old Jamila Botoato.

In February, Iraq sentenced a French woman to seven months in jail for entering the country illegally. In the same month, 16 Turkish women were sentenced to death for providing logistical support to the militants.

Iraq is holding hundreds of foreign wives and children of Islamic State militants who were captured as Iraqi forces gradually seized back territories held by the extremist group since 2014. The government declared victory over IS last December.

Authorities say they are coordinating with other countries to extradite those held who are not convicted of terrorism. </s> A court in Baghdad sentenced 19 Russian women to life in prison for joining Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) fighters in the country.

A Central Criminal Court ruling determined on Sunday the Russian women were guilty of "joining and supporting" ISIL, AFP news agency reported.

The women, many accompanied by their children, addressed the court through a translator - a Russian -language professor at Baghdad University hired by the Russian embassy.

A Russian diplomat at the hearing said the families of the women will be contacted and "informed of the verdict".

Another six women from Azerbaijan and four from Tajikistan were also given life sentences.

Most of the women on trial claimed to have been misled into making the trip to Iraq.

"I did not know we were in Iraq … I went with my husband and my children to Turkey to live there and then I suddenly discovered I was actually in Iraq," one of the accused said on Sunday.

ISIL fighters surprised Iraqi forces with a lightning-quick offensive in 2014 and captured about one-third of the country, including the second-largest city Mosul, among others.

Since declaring victory over ISIL in late 2017, Iraqi authorities have arrested more than 560 women and 600 children identified as either as members of the group or relatives of fighters.

Earlier this month, an Iraqi court sentenced French national Djamila Boutoutaou to life imprisonment for joining the armed group.

Boutoutaou told authorities at the time she travelled with her husband thinking they would go on a holiday, but soon realised once in Turkey that her "husband was a jihadist".

Her husband was later killed in a military operation near Mosul along with their son. Boutoutaou subsequently surrendered to Kurdish Peshmerga forces in Iraq.

Experts estimate Iraq has detained more than 20,000 people over suspected ties to the group and has sentenced more than 300 people to death so far. Twelve ISIL widows were given the death penalty in February.

Iraq's anti-terrorism laws empower courts to convict people who are believed to have helped ISIL, even if they were not directly involved in fighting. </s> Iraq on Sunday sentenced 19 Russian women to life in prison for joining the Islamic State group, the latest in a series of heavy verdicts against foreign women linked to the jihadists.

The head of Baghdad’s Central Criminal Court, which deals with terrorism cases, said the women were found guilty of “joining and supporting IS“, according to an AFP journalist at the hearing. Six women from Azerbaijan and four from Tajikistan were also condemned to life in prison Sunday on the same charge.

The women, who have the right to appeal against the sentences, entered the court one-by-one dressed in black headscarves and pink blouses, most of them accompanied by their children. They addressed the court through a translator, a Russian-language professor at Baghdad University hired by their embassy for the trial.

“We will contact the parents to inform them of the verdict,” a Russian diplomat at the hearing told AFP.

IS took over nearly one third of Iraq in a blistering 2014 offensive, seizing control of the country’s second largest city, Mosul, among others. Baghdad declared military victory over the jihadists in December, after expelling them from all urban centres.

It has detained at least 560 women and 600 children identified as jihadists or relatives of suspected IS fighters, and is wasting no time in putting them on trial.

Most of the women on trial on Sunday claimed they were tricked into going to Iraq.

“I did not know we were in Iraq,” said one of the accused. “I went with my husband and my children to Turkey to live there, and then I suddenly discovered that I was actually in Iraq.”

Experts estimate that Iraq is holding 20,000 people in jail over suspected IS membership. There is no official figure.

Iraqi courts have sentenced to death a total of more than 300 people, including dozens of foreigners, for belonging to IS, judicial sources said earlier this month.

Iraq’s anti-terrorism law empowers courts to convict people who are believed to have helped jihadists even if they are not accused of carrying out attacks. </s> Iraq has sentenced two women from Russia to life in prison after convicting them of belonging to the extremist Islamic State group.

The two women sentenced by a Baghdad court on April 17 were identified by officials from Chechnya as natives of Daghestan, which neighbors Chechnya in Russia's North Caucasus region.

Russian state media reports citing Iraqi television said three women from Azerbaijan were sentenced to death at the same hearing, as was a woman from Kyrgyzstan. Details about those women could not be immediately confirmed.

AFP reported that five women from Azerbaijan were sentenced to death at the hearing. The discrepancy between that report and the Russian state media reports could not immediately be reconciled.

The two Russian women sentenced to life in prison held small children in their arms during the hearing.

Iraq in December declared victory against IS militants who at one point controlled one-third of the country’s territory.

The country’s antiterrorism laws allow courts to convict those believed to have assisted IS militants even if they have not been accused of violent actions.

Iraq is reportedly holding more than 1,000 foreign women suspected of IS links, most of them from Turkey and the former Soviet Union. Some of these women have been sentenced to death.

The Associated Press reported last month that Iraq is holding more than 19,000 people due to alleged IS ties.

Human Rights Watch, which estimated a similar figure late last year, has warned that Iraq's antiterror laws are sweeping up suspects with minimal IS involvement. It said in December that 7,374 people had been found guilty of involvement in IS under Iraq's antiterrorism laws since 2014, of whom 92 have been executed.

Iraqi authorities have yet to announce the carrying out of death sentences against foreign women convicted of belonging to IS.

With reporting by AFP, TASS, RIA Novosti, The New York Times, Reuters, AP, and The Daily Telegraph </s> Iraq has held around 1,400 foreign wives and children of suspected Islamic State fighters since U.S.-backed forces recaptured the city of Mosul in 2017. Most of them hail from Turkey, followed by women from Russia and the former Soviet republics.

Iraq has reportedly sentenced two Russian women to life in prison for ties to Islamic State.

A criminal court in Iraq sentenced two Russian women and one French woman to life sentences in prison for Islamic State ties, local media reported Tuesday.

Three Azerbaijani women and one Kyrgyz woman were reportedly sentenced to death.

Elvira Beremova, born in 1997, and Alisa Ismailova, born in 1992, were convicted on charges of terrorism and illegally crossing the border, the BBC Russia service reported on Tuesday, citing a member of the Chechen human rights council.



Beremova is reportedly a mother of two and Ismailova is a mother of three. 



A Russian senator told the state-run RIA Novosti news agency that Moscow has two weeks to file an appeal.

“We did our best to alleviate the plight of the imprisoned Russian women without violating the laws of Iraq,” RIA cited Russian Senator Ziyad Sabsabi as saying.

RIA reported that Beremova and Ismailova are listed among 57 Russian women and around 100 of their children detained in a female prison in Baghdad as of March. </s> Iraq’s Central Criminal Court has issued death sentences to 16 Turkish women, a judiciary spokesman said. They were found guilty of joining Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) and aiding terrorists in their attacks.

The women were convicted to death by hanging after “it was proven they belong to the Daesh terrorist group and after they confessed to marrying Daesh elements or providing members of the group with logistical aid or helping them carry out terrorist attacks,” Judge Abdul-Sattar al-Birqdar, a spokesman of the court, told reporters, using an Arabic acronym for Islamic State. The court’s decision can still be appealed, he said.

Thousands of women, including foreign nationals who joined the terrorist group, were detained by Iraqi forces as they liberated territories held by the extremists. In October last year, the Iraqi ambassador to Belgium, Jawad Al-Chlaihawi, put the total number of detained IS militant family members at 14,000. Many of them now face trial.

On Monday, the Iraqi court sentenced another Turkish woman to death over membership in the terrorist group while handing down life sentences to 10 more women of various nationalities. In late January, the death sentence was issued to a German woman of Moroccan descent who reportedly became the first foreign woman to be sentenced to death by an Iraqi court.

As many as 100 foreign fighters who travelled to Iraq to fight for Islamic State will stand trial in Iraq, Al-Chlaihawi said, adding that most of them are likely to be also sentenced to death. Back in 2015, an Iraqi court already sentenced an IS extremist, who came from Russia, to death.

All foreigners, including women who committed “crimes” against the people of Iraq “directly or through support” of terrorist groups will stand trial in accordance with Iraqi law, government spokesman Saad al-Hadithi said earlier this week. He added that foreign nationals proven to have committed no crimes on Iraqi soil would be sent back to their home countries, local media report.

On Monday, an Iraqi court ordered the release and deportation of a French woman who joined Islamic State. Melina Bougedir, 27, was detained last summer as Iraqi troops took over the northern city of Mosul from extremists. She was sentenced to seven months in prison for entering Iraq illegally, but was then immediately released as the court ruled she already served her time during her detention.

Last week, a German teenage ‘Islamic State bride’ known as Linda Wenzel was convicted to six years in prison for her affiliation with the terrorist group. </s> Ten women were given death sentences in an Iraqi court on Sunday for their participation in the Islamic State. Six are from Azerbaijan, and four are from Tajikistan. Nineteen Russian women were sentenced to life in prison; dozens more are awaiting trial. The children of the Russian women are expected to be taken back to Russia. Most of the women likely followed their militant husbands into Iraq, and they may appeal their verdicts. Nine more women were arrested in Qayara on Sunday.

At least 10 people were killed, and four were wounded in recent violence:

In Baghdad, a senior Shi’ite militiaman died in a hospital after being shot while driving through Bayaa district; Qasim al-Zubaidi, was head of the militia finance office. Later, another senior militia leader was unharmed after an attempt on his life. An election candidate was killed in a shooting in Mashtal. A sticky bomb wounded a driver in Bab al-Sham.

Four militants were killed in Mosul.
• Five Foreign Women Condemned to Death in Iraqi Court; Four Killed in Iraq – April 26th, 2018 </s> The broadcaster reported, citing a ruling of the Central Criminal Court of Iraq, that two Russian nationals and one woman from France had been handed life sentences.

The court also sentenced four people, including three Azerbaijani nationals and one woman from Kyrgyzstan, to death over their membership in the infamous terrorist group.

READ MORE: Iraq to Take All Necessary Measures to Block Cross-Border Daesh Attacks — Abadi

Last December, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Abadi declared the end of the country's fight against Daesh after Iraqi troops re-established complete control over the country's border with Syria.
The Central Criminal Court in Baghdad, Iraq, sentences nineteen Russian women, six Azerbaijani women, and four Tajikistani women to life in prison for membership to ISIL.