Iraq court sentences 29-year-old French woman to life in prison over links with Islamic State

Baghdad: Iraq sentenced a French woman to life in prison for belonging to the Islamic State group, the latest in a series of court rulings since the country’s defeat of Islamic State. Djamila Boutoutaou, a 29-year-old of Algerian origin, told a Baghdad court that she had left France with her husband, a rapper. [caption id=“attachment_4394415” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. Reuters[/caption] She said she thought they were going on holiday but “when I arrived in Turkey I discovered that my husband was a jihadist”. She said she was forced by her husband to join Islamic State and live in the “caliphate” that the jihadists proclaimed in 2014 straddling Syria and Iraq. Her husband was killed near the former jihadist stronghold of Mosul, northern Iraq, and her son died in bombardment, Boutoutaou said. Two Russian women, both holding children in their arms, were also sentenced to life in prison at the same hearing. Iraq declared victory in December against Islamic State, which at one point controlled a third of the country. The Iraqi anti-terrorism law empowers courts to convict people who are believed to have helped Islamic State even if they are not accused of violence. In January, an Iraqi court condemned a German woman to death after finding her guilty of belonging to Islamic State. A court the following month sentenced another French woman to seven months in jail for entering Iraq illegally but ordered her release on time already served. Several dozen Turkish women have been sentenced to death under Iraqi anti-terrorism laws.