Sema
A decision has been made in France to prosecute Sabri Essid, a French national terrorist who is believed to have died in Syria, on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity targeting the Yazidi religious minority.
Two judges from the Crimes Against Humanity section of the Paris Court have initiated proceedings against Essid, born in 1984 in Toulouse, for genocide, crimes against humanity, and complicity in these offenses committed in Syria between August 2014 and 2016. His alleged victims primarily include four Yazidi women and their seven children.
In an indictment reviewed by Agence France-Presse, the judges stated that “the actions committed by Sabri Essid were entirely consistent with his endorsement of the Islamic State organization’s genocide policy, which legitimized the buying and selling of Yazidi women and children, their detention, enslavement, and the numerous rapes inflicted upon them.”
Essid has been presumed dead since 2018; however, the absence of official confirmation of his death allows the French judiciary to proceed with a trial in absentia.
Investigations have shown that Essid “purchased several kidnapped Yazidi women” along with their children “from members of the Islamic State organization,” according to the judges.
The judges suspect that Sabri Essid “severely and deliberately deprived” these women and their children “of their fundamental rights” because of their Yazidi identity.
The Yazidi women, who were denied access to water, food, care, and freedom, recounted experiences of “repeated rape” perpetrated by Sabri Essid with “violence and brutality,” describing that he treated them “like sexual commodities.”