US EditionFrench jihadist presumed dead to be tried for Yazidi 'genocide'
Sabri Essid faces charges including genocide and crimes against humanity for enslaving and abusing Yazidi women and children during IS’s 2014-2016 campaign, UN investigators said.
- On March 16, 2026 Sabri Essid, a French jihadist presumed dead, is tried in absentia in Paris criminal court on charges of genocide, crimes against humanity, and complicity.
- Because the ICC did not open an investigation, national courts became the main route for Yazidi victims seeking justice after IS's 2014 Mount Sinjar offensive killed over 5,000 and displaced more than 400,000.
- Investigators say Essid bought several Yazidi women, repeatedly raped them and deprived them of water and food; four Yazidi women and their seven children are victims, with three civil parties and two expected to testify.
- Attorney Clémence Bectarte said the hearing must provide another reading of IS crimes and his wife, jailed since returning to France, is to testify as the trial runs until Friday.
- Other European courts have recently convicted presumed-dead IS suspects, including Belgium last year and a court last month, while Germany's 2021 ruling set a precedent and Sonia Mejri faces trial next year.
18 Articles
18 Articles
The French jihadist, born in Toulouse in 1984, is tried in Paris for genocide, crimes against humanity and complicity in these crimes committed in the Irako-Syrian area between 2014 and 2016.
First Genocide Trial Against ISIS Terrorist Opens In France
French citizen Sabri Essid, an Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist group member, is being publicly tried in Paris on charges of crimes against humanity and genocide against the Yazidis, a persecuted non-Muslim community in Iraq. The case marks a historic milestone because it is the first trial in French courts concerning the crimes committed by ISIS against the Yazidi people. Further, it is the first time a French citizen is tried on charges of part…
France’s first Yazidi genocide trial begins in Paris
PARIS: A French militant went on trial on Monday in Paris on charges of genocide, the first case in France to tackle atrocities committed against the Yazidi minority during the years-long conflict waged by the Daesh militant group in the Middle East. Sabri Essid is presumed to have been killed in 2018, but without proof of his death he is being tried in absentia in Paris on
Sabri Essid, presumed dead, is tried in absentia before the Paris Court of Assizes. This is the first trial in France related to the Yezidis genocide in Syria.
Sabri Essid, a Toulouse jihadist close to Mohamed Merah, is considered dead. But his trial for genocide and crimes against humanity committed against the Yezidis in Iraq and Syria between 2014 and 2016 remains historic. This is the first time that a Frenchman will be tried for ...
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