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 participation in the ISIS-led genocide.
Essid is presumed dead in Syria. However, in the absence of evidence certifying his death, French courts have jurisdiction to try him.
The in absentia trial of Essid, which starts on March 16, will run through March 20 in the Paris Criminal Court.
The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), the Kinyat Organization for Documentation, the Free Yezidi Foundation (FYF), Yazda, and the Ligue des droits de l’Homme (LDH) will participate in the trial as civil parties, alongside three Yezidi survivors and their children.
Patrick Baudoin, lawyer of the LDH, said:
In the absence of conclusive evidence of his death, French law allows to hold a trial in absentia—a procedure frequently applied in terrorism cases. Given that, in the past, ISIS fighters previously thought dead have later resurfaced, it is essential that this trial proceed.
“Sabri Essid, also known as Abou Dojanah al-Faransi, was a central figure in the French jihadist movement,” reported the Free Yezidi Foundation (FYF).
He is accused of having committed, between August 2014 and throughout 2016, serious bodily or mental harm constituting genocide, as well as acts of enslavement, imprisonment, torture, rape, persecution, and other inhuman acts constituting crimes against humanity, and of complicity in these crimes, against Yazidi women and children in Syria.
In August 2014, the ISIS (Islamic State) terrorist group invaded and largely destroyed Sinjar, the native homeland of the Yezidi community in Iraq, forcing hundreds of thousands to flee to neighboring areas. Between 70,000 and 80,000 Yazidis sought refuge in the mountains, where they were besieged for several days. More than 1,700 of them died from hunger, dehydration, and untreated injuries. 93% of the victims were children. The rest, unable to flee, were outright murdered or taken into captivity and subjected to atrocities such as enslavement, forced labor, conscription, torture, and rape.
ISIS considered Yazidis ‘kafirs/infidels’ and ordered men to either convert or die. Hundreds, including men and old women, were massacred. Younger women, on the other hand, were given no choice. They were taken captive, forcibly married off to the highest bidder, sexually enslaved, and forced to convert to Islam.
Sexual violence was strategically used as a weapon of war and codified in ISIS manuals that explained how to traffic Yazidi women. Over 6,000 women and children were abducted and enslaved by ISIS. Nearly 2,500 remain missing today. At least 83 Yazidi mass graves in Sinjar still await being unearthed. Around 190,000 Yazidis remain internally displaced in Iraq. The assault constituted a publicized genocide that was systematically orchestrated by ISIS.
The Islamic State (ISIS) emerged through a series of organizational transformations. The origins of the terrorist group trace back to 1999 with the formation of a predecessor group, Jama’at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad, in Jordan, and Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI). In 2013, the terrorist group expanded into Syria and was renamed the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS/ISIL). They have since committed genocidal crimes against religious minorities in Iraq and Syria and conducted global terror attacks.
In 2014, ISIS captured the city of Mosul and subsequently declared the establishment of a caliphate. They issued an ultimatum to Iraqi Christians living in Mosul: they must convert to Islam, pay a religious tax (jizya), or face “death by the sword.” Hundreds of people were killed, and approximately 500,000 fled their homes in the city. For over two years, Mosul’s residents lived under harsh ISIS rule.
Many Muslim men from Western countries arrived in Iraq and Syria to participate in those atrocities against Yazidis, Christians, and other minorities. Some later returned to Europe, where they currently continue to live.
A few ISIS members have been convicted of genocide by courts in Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands, and Belgium. On January 11, 2026, Amnesty International Germany released a comprehensive publication documenting the world’s first criminal trial addressing the ISIS genocide against Yazidis. The case centers on Taha Al-J., who was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2021 by the Oberlandesgericht Frankfurt am Main for genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes against the Yazidi community.
In December 2016, the French Prosecutor’s Office opened a “structural” preliminary investigation aimed at establishing crimes committed by ISIS fighters against the Yazidis and other ethnic or religious minorities and at identifying potential French perpetrators.
In order to collect testimonies from Yazidi survivors, FIDH and Kinyat conducted a documentation mission in Iraq in 2017 and published the report “Sexual and gender-based crimes against the Yazidi Community: the role of ISIL foreign fighters.”
In 2019, based on information provided by FIDH and Kinyat, as well as on the testimonies of Yazidi survivors, French authorities identified Essid and opened a judicial investigation. During the course of the investigation, which lasted five years, five Yazidi survivors, as well as their children, were identified as victims of Essid.
In October 2024, the investigating judges ordered that Essid be tried before the Criminal Court.
Pari Ibrahim, the Executive Director of Free Yezidi Foundation, told europeanconservative.com:
We are glad to see this trial in France. But there were thousands of European ISIS members. This is a step forward, but it is not as much as we want. We need to see many, many more trials, even if it takes decades to bring forward the charges.
The cases against ISIS members in other European countries have been well documented. But Britain has been almost completely absent in terms of ISIS prosecutions, even though there were many British ISIS members. I will be raising this in London, just after the trial in Paris, with the British Parliament and FCDO (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office). Britain is way behind and they can do much better.
Europe must smarten up and understand the gravity of what happened and issue indictments and hefty sentences accordingly. Anyone convicted in genocide should be in prison for life, without exception, in our view. It is the worst crime that exists.
brahim added that, “if those ISIS terrorists are not jailed, tried, and convicted, they will commit crimes again. The crimes will not be petty, and the suffering will be very real, and the crimes will very likely be perpetrated in Europe. European security and judicial authorities must not be naive and slow but must be strong, proactive, and aggressive in ensuring justice.”
How many ISIS terrorists have returned to Europe since the collapse of the ISIS caliphate in 2019? And how many Muslim migrants in the West support the jihadist ideology, the Islamic conquest of the West, and the rebirth of the caliphate? The existence of ISIS sleeper cells and other jihadist groups remains a major national security threat that European governments must no longer ignore.
First Genocide Trial Against ISIS Terrorist Opens In France
Yazidi children walk near buildings destroyed during the 2014 attack by Islamic State terrorists in the village of Solagh in the Sinjar region of the northern Iraqi Nineveh province on May 6, 2024.
Safin HAMID / AFP
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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 participation in the ISIS-led genocide.
Essid is presumed dead in Syria. However, in the absence of evidence certifying his death, French courts have jurisdiction to try him.
The in absentia trial of Essid, which starts on March 16, will run through March 20 in the Paris Criminal Court.
The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), the Kinyat Organization for Documentation, the Free Yezidi Foundation (FYF), Yazda, and the Ligue des droits de l’Homme (LDH) will participate in the trial as civil parties, alongside three Yezidi survivors and their children.
Patrick Baudoin, lawyer of the LDH, said:
“Sabri Essid, also known as Abou Dojanah al-Faransi, was a central figure in the French jihadist movement,” reported the Free Yezidi Foundation (FYF).
In August 2014, the ISIS (Islamic State) terrorist group invaded and largely destroyed Sinjar, the native homeland of the Yezidi community in Iraq, forcing hundreds of thousands to flee to neighboring areas. Between 70,000 and 80,000 Yazidis sought refuge in the mountains, where they were besieged for several days. More than 1,700 of them died from hunger, dehydration, and untreated injuries. 93% of the victims were children. The rest, unable to flee, were outright murdered or taken into captivity and subjected to atrocities such as enslavement, forced labor, conscription, torture, and rape.
ISIS considered Yazidis ‘kafirs/infidels’ and ordered men to either convert or die. Hundreds, including men and old women, were massacred. Younger women, on the other hand, were given no choice. They were taken captive, forcibly married off to the highest bidder, sexually enslaved, and forced to convert to Islam.
Sexual violence was strategically used as a weapon of war and codified in ISIS manuals that explained how to traffic Yazidi women. Over 6,000 women and children were abducted and enslaved by ISIS. Nearly 2,500 remain missing today. At least 83 Yazidi mass graves in Sinjar still await being unearthed. Around 190,000 Yazidis remain internally displaced in Iraq. The assault constituted a publicized genocide that was systematically orchestrated by ISIS.
The Islamic State (ISIS) emerged through a series of organizational transformations. The origins of the terrorist group trace back to 1999 with the formation of a predecessor group, Jama’at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad, in Jordan, and Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI). In 2013, the terrorist group expanded into Syria and was renamed the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS/ISIL). They have since committed genocidal crimes against religious minorities in Iraq and Syria and conducted global terror attacks.
In 2014, ISIS captured the city of Mosul and subsequently declared the establishment of a caliphate. They issued an ultimatum to Iraqi Christians living in Mosul: they must convert to Islam, pay a religious tax (jizya), or face “death by the sword.” Hundreds of people were killed, and approximately 500,000 fled their homes in the city. For over two years, Mosul’s residents lived under harsh ISIS rule.
Many Muslim men from Western countries arrived in Iraq and Syria to participate in those atrocities against Yazidis, Christians, and other minorities. Some later returned to Europe, where they currently continue to live.
A few ISIS members have been convicted of genocide by courts in Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands, and Belgium. On January 11, 2026, Amnesty International Germany released a comprehensive publication documenting the world’s first criminal trial addressing the ISIS genocide against Yazidis. The case centers on Taha Al-J., who was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2021 by the Oberlandesgericht Frankfurt am Main for genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes against the Yazidi community.
In December 2016, the French Prosecutor’s Office opened a “structural” preliminary investigation aimed at establishing crimes committed by ISIS fighters against the Yazidis and other ethnic or religious minorities and at identifying potential French perpetrators.
In order to collect testimonies from Yazidi survivors, FIDH and Kinyat conducted a documentation mission in Iraq in 2017 and published the report “Sexual and gender-based crimes against the Yazidi Community: the role of ISIL foreign fighters.”
In 2019, based on information provided by FIDH and Kinyat, as well as on the testimonies of Yazidi survivors, French authorities identified Essid and opened a judicial investigation. During the course of the investigation, which lasted five years, five Yazidi survivors, as well as their children, were identified as victims of Essid.
In October 2024, the investigating judges ordered that Essid be tried before the Criminal Court.
Pari Ibrahim, the Executive Director of Free Yezidi Foundation, told europeanconservative.com:
brahim added that, “if those ISIS terrorists are not jailed, tried, and convicted, they will commit crimes again. The crimes will not be petty, and the suffering will be very real, and the crimes will very likely be perpetrated in Europe. European security and judicial authorities must not be naive and slow but must be strong, proactive, and aggressive in ensuring justice.”
How many ISIS terrorists have returned to Europe since the collapse of the ISIS caliphate in 2019? And how many Muslim migrants in the West support the jihadist ideology, the Islamic conquest of the West, and the rebirth of the caliphate? The existence of ISIS sleeper cells and other jihadist groups remains a major national security threat that European governments must no longer ignore.
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