ERBIL, Kurdistan Region —The United Nations Committee against Torture has asked France to "take all possible measures" to prevent the executions of five French jihadists in Iraq in a letter seen by Agence France-Presse.
In the Friday letter sent to lawyer Nabil Boudi, the committee said that it "requests the concerned state to take every useful and reasonable measure within its powers to protect the physical and psychological well-being of the convicted and to prohibit the application of the death penalty on account of these individuals."
The committee added that France "should continue to inform it without delay of every action taken in this regard."
This request falls within the framework of "temporary measures" that the committee may propose to any country pending a study of the content of the case. France has an eight-month deadline to provide "clarifications or notes" on the content of the file.
Nabil Boudi had informed the commission on February 4 of the status of Ibrahim al-Najjarah, Bilal al-Kabawi, Leonard Lopez, Fadhel Taher Aouidat and Murad Delhoum, who were sentenced to death in June 2019 for joining the Islamic State group (ISIS).
Their attorneys demanded the Geneva-based committee "take temporary protection measures in view of the urgency of the situation, with the aim of avoiding irreparable harm to the petitioners, who are victims of the lack of protection on the part of the French authorities."
The body confirmed to AFP on Friday that the convicts "receive inhuman and degrading treatment in Iraqi prisons," stressing that "France knows this situation and does not move to end it."
France previously denied involvement in the “illegal transfer” of French citizens suspected of ISIS membership from Syria to Iraq in February of last year.
Iraq declared victory over IS in late 2017 and began trying foreigners accused of joining the jihadists the following year.
The Iraqi judiciary has since tried and sentenced more than hundreds of suspected foreign members of ISIS to life in prison, and others to death. Iraq has also tried thousands of its own nationals arrested on home soil or repatriated from Syria for joining ISIS, including women.
The trials have been criticised by rights groups, which say they often rely on evidence obtained through torture.
Eleven French nationals arrested in Syria were sentenced to death in Iraq in 2019. Three others, including two women, were sentenced to life in prison for belonging to the terror group.
The country remains in the top “executioner” nations in the world, according to an Amnesty International report published in April.
Executions in Iraq skyrocketed by 92% in 2019, said to be attributed to the prosecution of suspected ISIS members.
Analysts have also warned that prisons in Iraq act as “academies” for future jihadists, including former leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who was killed in a US raid in October 2019.
Additional reporting by AFP
