150 Daeshis transferred to Baghdad to be executed

BAGHDAD:- More than a hundred members of the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group captured during the liberation of the strategic northern Iraqi city of Mosul have been moved to Baghdad to face execution.

An unnamed source from Nineveh provincial police department said 150 Daesh extremists, who had been condemned with death sentences, were transferred  under the tight protection of security forces from Mosul, located some 400 kilometers (250 miles) north of Baghdad, to the capital.

The source added that the militants have "admitted to intimidating civilians, joining Daesh terrorist group, killing and looting over the past few years."

"Court rulings passed against the convicts, who are all of Iraqi nationality, will soon be carried out," he pointed out.

On Sunday, a court in Iraq sentenced French citizen Melina Boughedir to life in prison for her membership in the Daesh terrorist group.

Boughedir, a mother of four, told the judge in French that she was "innocent" and that her husband, who is now believed to have been killed in anti-terror operations, first "duped" her and then "threatened" her to take away the children from her unless she followed him to the Arab country, where he joined Daesh.

This undated file picture shows French terrorist Melina Boughedir with three of her children.

"I am opposed to the ideology" of Daesh and "condemn the actions of my husband," the 27-year-old French citizen said in defense while she wore a black dress and a black headscarf.

Boughedir arrived in the courtroom as she was carrying her youngest daughter in her arms. Her three other children are now in France.

On May 3, the Central Criminal Court of Iraq, which is the country's flagship criminal justice institution, handed down life terms to eight foreign women over Daesh membership and involvement in acts of terror across the war-ravaged Arab country.

Abdul Sattar al-Biraqdar, spokesman for Iraq's Supreme Judicial Council, said in a statement that the court issued the verdicts against three Turkish women, three Azerbaijanis, one Uzbek national and a Syrian citizen.

Iraq's Central Criminal Court found 19 female Russian citizens guilty of "joining and supporting Daesh" on April 29.

The court passed life sentences on the women as they were accompanied by small children during the hearing. 

On April 17, the Supreme Judicial Council of Iraq announced in a statement that the Central Criminal Court had sentenced three Azerbaijani women and a female Kyrgyz citizen to death over affiliation to Daesh.

The court also handed life sentences to two Russian nationals and one woman from France.

On December 9, 2017, Iraq's Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared the end of military operations against Daesh in the Arab country.

Seven months later, Abadi formally declared victory over Daesh extremists in Mosul, which served as the terrorists' main urban stronghold in the conflict-ridden Arab country.

In the run-up to Mosul's liberation, Iraqi army soldiers and volunteer Hashd al-Sha'abi fighters had made sweeping gains against Daesh.

The Iraqi forces took control of eastern Mosul in January 2017 after 100 days of fighting, and launched the battle in the west on February 19 last year.

Daesh began a terror campaign in Iraq in 2014, overrunning vast swathes in lightning attacks.