A French court on Monday began a landmark trial examining the Islamic State (IS) group’s campaign against the Yazidi religious minority in northern Iraq. It is the first time France has prosecuted a suspect for genocide linked to the attacks on the community in Iraq and Syria.
Issued on: 16/03/2026 - RFI
Many Yazidis fled their homes after attacks by the Islamic State group targeting the minority community in Iraq. PHOTO/AHMAD AL-RUBAYEThe accused is a French jihadist presumed dead but still being tried in absentia for his alleged role in enslaving and abusing Yazidi women and children.
Sabri Essid, born in Toulouse in 1984, joined the Islamic State group in Syria in early 2014. Investigators say he first worked as a bodyguard to a senior IS leader before becoming a member of the Amniyat, the organisation’s internal security and intelligence branch.
He faces charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and complicity in those crimes committed in Syria between August 2014 and 2016.
Four Yazidi women and their seven children have been identified as victims in the case.
Essid is presumed to have died in Syria in 2018. Because there is no official confirmation of his death, French courts say they can still try him in absentia in case he reappears in Syria or Iraq. The trial is scheduled to run until Friday.
Survivors speak out
The four Yazidi women described captivity marked by deprivation and repeated violence.
Investigators say they were deprived of water, food, medical care and freedom, and spoke of repeated rapes carried out with “violence and brutality”. They said Essid treated them “like sexual merchandise”.
“It is important to understand that an unspeakable horror fell upon these women,” said lawyer Clémence Bectarte, who represents three of the women and is a member of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), an international rights group.
Bectarte told RFI the women had been held by multiple Islamic State fighters during their captivity.
“When I started working with these four women, there was frustration. They had been detained, bought, raped and enslaved by sometimes 10 or 15 members of Daesh,” Bectarte said, using the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group.
“This trial concerns just one of their tormentors. Of course it is nothing compared with what a trial could have been that delivered justice for all the crimes they suffered. But for each of them it is very important to name the crimes, to recognise them and to ensure their voices are heard through a process of justice."
The women are now focused on the future of their children, Bectarte added.
Recognising genocide
The Islamic State group targeted the Yazidis, a religious minority mainly living in northern Iraq, during its expansion in 2014.
Thousands of Yazidi men were killed while women and girls were abducted and enslaved.
More than 5,000 people were killed and more than 400,000 were displaced from their homes. Thousands of Yazidi women and children are still missing or believed to be held captive.
In May 2021, Karim Khan, who led a United Nations investigation into the atrocities, said investigators had found “clear and convincing evidence that genocide was committed by IS against the Yazidis as a religious group”.
The UN inquiry also identified 1,444 suspected perpetrators of the genocide, including 18 senior Islamic State leaders and the French national Sabri Essid.
National courts step in
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has not opened an investigation into the crimes because the most senior Islamic State leaders involved were nationals of countries that are not parties to the court.
In the absence of a case before the ICC, national courts have become the main path to justice for Yazidi victims.
Germany delivered the first conviction for genocide against the Yazidis in November 2021, when a court in Frankfurt found an IS member known as Taha Al J guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity.
Trials have also taken place in Sweden, the Netherlands and Belgium. In Brussels late last year, a court convicted Sammy Djedou, born to a Belgian mother and Ivorian father and also presumed dead, of genocide against the Yazidis.
For many years France mainly prosecuted citizens who joined the Islamic State group under terrorism charges rather than genocide or crimes against humanity.
Bectarte said that changed after years of legal advocacy.
“In 2017 we began a long effort with the FIDH to explain the importance of also prosecuting crimes against humanity and genocide when there were indications and evidence that French nationals had been involved, particularly in the sexual enslavement of Yazidis,” she told RFI.
Investigations also showed that the persecution of Yazidis formed part of a broader policy organised by the Islamic State group.
“What really emerges from these cases is how much the genocide committed against the Yazidis resulted from a policy put in place, planned and dictated by Islamic State even before or at the moment it captured Mount Sinjar in August 2014,” Bectarte said.
Path to jihad
Essid’s involvement in jihadist networks dates back years before he joined the Islamic State
As a teenager he developed an interest in religion and later became radicalised under the influence of Fabien Clain, one of the men who claimed responsibility for the November 2015 Paris attacks.
In 2006 Essid was arrested in Syria while trying to reach Iraq to fight US forces alongside another future IS member, Thomas Barnouin. He was returned to France and sentenced in 2009 to five years in prison, including one suspended year, for criminal association linked to preparing a terrorist act.
After his release he worked as a crane operator.
Essid later became close to Mohamed Merah, who carried out the 2012 attacks in Toulouse and Montauban. The two men became step-brothers when Essid’s father married Merah’s mother.
Despite being under surveillance by French intelligence services, Essid travelled to Syria in February 2014 with his family.
Investigators say he later appeared in an IS propaganda video released on 10 March 2015.
In the video, his 11-year-old stepson shoots a 19-year-old hostage presented as an Israeli agent. Essid can be heard threatening Israelis and referring to the attack on the Hyper Cacher supermarket in Paris.
Investigators say the video was also used to intimidate Yazidi women held captive by Essid. Some later recognised him in the footage and identified him as one of their abusers.
French woman faces genocide trial over enslavement of Yazidi girl
There are several conflicting accounts of Essid’s death.
Islamic State records captured by US forces list him as a “martyr” in January 2018. His wife said he died on 4 February 2018 after being executed by former IS members who had defected. Another propaganda account said he died after stepping on a mine.
Because none of these claims has been officially confirmed, French courts still consider him a fugitive and have proceeded with the genocide trial.
Next year, a 36-year-old French woman who returned from Syria is due to be tried on terrorism charges and for complicity in crimes against humanity. Sonia Mejri will also become the first French woman tried for genocide in Paris after an appeal challenging the case was rejected. She is accused of enslaving a Yazidi teenager in 2015.
Bectarte said investigations have also changed how some women linked to Islamic State are viewed.
“For a time, the women and family members of French nationals who joined Daesh were seen primarily as victims,” she said.
“But as investigations progressed, particularly through testimony from Yazidi survivors, it became clear that in some cases women had also played a role in the whole system.”
For the Yazidi community, the trials represent part of a broader search for justice after years of persecution that reached its worst point between 2014 and 2016.
This story was adapted from the original version in French by Anne Bernas and Laura Martel
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