AN IRAQI court has sentenced the widow of a former Islamic State (ISIS) leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi to death.
Asma Mohammed was charged with detaining Yazidi women and keeping them as sex slaves at her home, the court announced on Wednesday.
State media, citing a Supreme Judicial Council statement said: “The terrorist enslaved Yazidi women in her home, and they were kidnapped by ISIS terrorist gangs in Sinjar district in western Nineveh province.”
Evil al-Baghdadi was killed in a major US operation in northwestern Syria in 2019.
His first wife Mohammed was then detained the same year in Turkey, say judicial sources.
Iraq announced they had secured “the repatriation of the family” of al-Baghdadi as they made her return to the Middle East along with her children.
Under Iraqi Counter-Terrorism laws anyone found guilty of assisting or hiding a terror suspect is given life imprisonment.
Mohammed spoke with the BBC after she was returned to Iraq this year as she described herself as a “victim who tried to escape from her husband”.
She would also deny being involved in any of ISIS’s brutal regime.
In one of her final interviews before she was sentenced, Mohammed, who married al-Baghdadi in 1999, said her husband owned over 10 “slave” women.
She told Al Arabiya that al-Baghdadi and other leaders of the terror group were “obsessed” with women.
Mohammed also reportedly said her husband had grown “arrogant” after he became internationally known for his horror leadership reign.
Two Yazidi women strongly disputed her innocence claims as they filed lawsuits against Mohammed for complicity in their kidnapping and enslavement.
Soad, a victim of ISIS, told BBC: “She was responsible for everything.
“She made the selections – this one to serve her, that one to serve her husband.”
The Yazidis are a religious group in the Middle East who were targeted by ISIS when they rose to power in 2014.
Over 6,000 members of the Yazidis religion were abducted by the terror group over a chilling period of violence.
Crimes against the Yazidis at the hands of ISIS include executions, torture, amputations, ethno-sectarian attacks, rape, and sexual slavery, according to the United Nations.
Courts in Iraq have given out hundreds of death sentences and sentenced even more to life behind bars in the last decade for those involved with ISIS.
It comes as Umm Hudaifa, al-Baghdadi’s first wife, gave chilling details of their disturbed marriage with the widow also being held in an Iraqi jail.
Speaking from prison, the terror bride claimed how al-Baghdadi was “psychologically damaged” and allegedly sexually tortured in prison.
She went on to claim that the ISIS boss even married off his own 12-year-old daughter to one of his friends and kept sex slaves at their home.
Moments after al-Baghdadi’s death was declared, then US President Donald Trump said he had “died like a dog…he died like a coward”.
He was deemed as one of the world’s most wanted men for a period of time for his role in al-Qaeda and then ISIS.
THE ISIS takeover of Iraq and Syria from 2014 to 2017 involved rapid territorial gains, brutal governance, and significant global impact.
Evolving from al-Qaeda in Iraq, ISIS grew under Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, exploiting the chaos of the Syrian Civil War to seize large territories.
In June 2014, ISIS captured Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, gaining significant resources.
Shortly after, ISIS declared a caliphate with al-Baghdadi as caliph, controlling major parts of Syria and Iraq, including Raqqa and Mosul.
The group established a strict governance system and used social media for recruitment and propaganda, showcasing its military successes and brutal acts.
Known for extreme violence, ISIS conducted mass executions and terror attacks, including the 2015 Paris and 2016 Brussels attacks.
An international coalition, including the US and local forces, launched a military campaign against ISIS, leading to key victories like the liberation of Mosul and Raqqa in 2017.
By the end of 2017, ISIS had lost most of its territory, though it retained some capacity for insurgent attacks.
The conflict caused massive displacement and humanitarian crises, with cities like Mosul and Raqqa heavily damaged.
Despite being weakened, ISIS continues to pose a threat through insurgent activities and lone-wolf attacks globally.
This period saw intense conflict, international efforts to combat ISIS, and significant impacts on regional stability and global security.
