CONVICTIONS TO DEATH FRENCH DJIHADISTS IN IRAQ

In a statement on Monday, the Foreign Ministry said that "adults detained in Iraq must be tried by the Iraqi judiciary, as soon as it declares itself competent. France respects the sovereignty of the Iraqi authorities ".

Refusal of any return and judgment in France of affiliates to the EI

France refuses any return and judgment in France of its nationals affiliated to Daesh, as repeated the Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian on Tuesday morning on France Inter:

"These terrorists, because they are terrorists who attacked us, who were also death-sowers in Iraq, must be judged where they committed their crimes. "

A court in Baghdad sentenced Yassine Sakkam to death on Wednesday for belonging to the jihadist Islamic State (IS) group, bringing to seven the number of French to have received in four days of capital punishment in that country. Yassine Sakkam was arrested in Syria and then transferred in January to Iraq with a group of 10 suspected French jihadists.

Six of them have been sentenced to death since Sunday for joining IS. Brahim Nejara, 33, accused by French intelligence of having facilitated the sending of jihadists to Syria, and Karam El Harchaoui, who will be 32, were sentenced to death on Tuesday by a court in Baghdad. On Sunday and Monday, Kévin Gonot, Leonard Lopez, Salim Machou and Mustapha Merzoughi were also sentenced to death by hanging. The list of French convicts for belonging to the jihadist organization could therefore lengthen.

This series of verdicts reopens the debate on the thorny issue of foreign jihadists: if the return - and judgment - of its nationals affiliated to the IS is not envisaged, France however refuses, at the same time, the penalty of death.

"Constant" opposition to the death penalty

Also the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Monday to "take the necessary steps" with the Iraqi authorities after the conviction of three French to the death penalty. On Tuesday, France said it "multiplied (steps) to avoid the death penalty" to these nationals, while Paris has long campaigned for the abolition of the death penalty in the world.

For Jean-Yves Le Drian, French Minister of Foreign Affairs, it is important to oppose in principle the death penalty, without jeopardizing the Iraqi justice or its legitimacy to judge the French.

"There are two principles, which are not contradictory. The first is that these terrorists there - because they are terrorists, who attacked us and who were also sowers of death in Iraq - must be judged where they committed their crimes. [...] [The second is that], we are totally opposed to the death penalty and we say it. [...]

We multiply the steps to avoid the death penalty to these four French, "said Jean-Yves le Drian, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Tuesday morning on France Inter

All have 30 days to appeal.

The convicts have 30 days to appeal, and the French lawyer Leonard Lopez has already announced that he would.

According to Iraqi law, anyone who has joined a "terrorist" organization - whether or not they have fought - is punishable by death.

Human rights defenders also denounce "real risks of torture" and "no guarantee for fair trials" in Iraq, the 12th most corrupt country in the world according to the NGO Transparency International.

In Iraq, it is the Iraqi judicial sovereignty that prevails and not the French laws ...

Delicate diplomatic imbroglio .....!