The UN Committee against Torture requests that France prevent the execution of five French jihadists in Iraq. The committee asks France to "take all measures" to "prevent" this conviction according to a letter to master Nabil Boudi, the lawyer for the five jihadists. Brahim Nejara, Bilel Kabaoui, Léonard Lopez, Fodil Tahar Aouidate and Mourad Delhomme were sentenced to death in June by Iraqi courts and have been detained since October in the Al-Roussafa high-security center in Baghdad.
Eight months to explain
"The Committee requested the State to take all useful and reasonable measures within its power to protect the applicants 'psychological and psychological integrity, as well as to prevent the applicants' death sentence from being carried out", informed the Committee in this letter addressed to their lawyer on Friday.
This request is part of the "provisional measures" that the Committee may propose to a State, pending the examination of the merits of the request. France has eight months to provide "explanations or observations "on the bottom of the file.
Me Boudi asks the Committee to condemn France
Me Nabil Boudi, who seized the Committee on February 4, believes that France "must keep the Committee informed without delay of any measure taken to this effect". According to him, his clients "undergo inhuman and degrading treatment in Iraqi prisons. France is fully aware of this situation and is not acting accordingly to put an end to it".
In addition to protective measures, Me Boudi asked the Geneva-based Committee to condemn France for its refusal to repatriate these jihadists and to judge them on its soil. Eleven French nationals captured in Syria were sentenced to death in 2019 in Iraq and three others, including two women, to life in prison for their membership of the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group.