Iraqi authorities sentenced six Turkish ISIS widows to death

Many of the women claim they had been forced into travelling to Iraq.

Iraq sentenced six Turkish women to death and a seventh to life in prison on Monday after being convicted on charges of terrorism, including providing support to ISIL operations.

Iraqi courts have been trying hundreds of detained women who lived with the insurgents during their three-year rule.

The women, accompanied by their young children, told the court that they had entered Iraq to join their ISIL husbands. They surrendered to Kurdish Peshmerga fighters after fleeing Tal Afar, one of the last ISIL bastions to fall to Iraqi security forces last year.

Since its surge in 2014 in northern Iraq, thousands of foreign fighters have joined ISIL in committing war crimes. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi declared victory over the extremist group in December. Iraqi authorities began prosecuting foreign militants and their families soon afterwards.

The women were found guilty under Article 4 of Iraq’s anti-terrorism law: “any person who commits, incites, plans, finances or assists in acts of terrorism”.

Source: The National