Iraq sentences four to death for joining ISIS

An Iraqi court has sentenced four people to death by hanging for belonging to the ISIS extremist group and committing terrorist crimes in Iraq and Syria, a judiciary statement said on Sunday.

The four men, wanted by Iraqi authorities, were handed to Iraq by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the statement said.

A Baghdad criminal court convicted them for joining ISIS and “carrying out criminal operations that targeted innocent civilians with the aim of undermining peace and stability in Iraq and Syria”.

A judicial source said the four men were Iraqi.

In February, Iraq’s military said the SDF had handed 280 Iraqi and foreign detainees to Baghdad.

Thousands of foreigners have fought on behalf of ISIS in Iraq and Syria since at least 2014. Many foreign women came - or were brought - from overseas to join the militants.

Iraqi courts are relying on counter terrorism laws to prosecute thousands of suspects, including foreign fighters, for joining the ultra-hardline extremist group.

ISIS captured a third of Iraq in 2014 but was largely defeated both there and in neighboring Syria where US-backed forces proclaimed last month the capture of ISIS’s last territory, eliminating its rule over a self-proclaimed “caliphate.”