IS Leader Baghdadi’s Wife Sentenced to Death

Last Updated on July 12, 2024 8:21 am

An Iraqi court has sentenced the wife of former leader of the Islamic State (IS) Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi to death.

Iraq’s Department of Justice reported this information on Wednesday (July 11). He was convicted of working with IS and keeping Yazidi women in their homes.

Several judicial sources, who did not want to be named, said the woman, who was detained in Turkey, has already been returned to Iraq.

“Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s wife was sentenced to death by the Criminal Court of Karkh for working with the terrorist group Daesh (another name for IS) and keeping a Yazidi woman locked up at home,” the website of Iraq’s Supreme Judicial Court said.

The website also says that the wife of the late IS leader held the Yazidis captive. They were later abducted by IS fighters in Iraq’s northern Sinjar district.

A judicial source identified Baghdadi’s wife as Asma Mohammad. Late IS leader Baghdadi had multiple marriages.

In 2014, Baghdadi declared a caliphate after occupying parts of Syria and Iraq. Five years later, in October 2019, Washington announced that Baghdadi had been killed in an operation by US forces in northwestern Syria.

IS members singled out non-Muslim Yazidis as they advanced through northern Iraq in 2014. They then systematically killed thousands of Yazidi men and forced women into sexual slavery.

Hundreds of people have been sentenced to death and life imprisonment in Iraqi courts over the years for being members of a terrorist organization.

More than 500 foreign men and women have been convicted in Iraq of joining IS.

Last February, Iraq announced it had secured the return of Baghdadi’s family. A judicial source told AFP that Baghdadi’s wife had been returned to Iraq after being detained in Turkey. Children also returned with him.

At that time, an interview with Baghdadi’s wife was also aired on the Saudi-owned TV channel Al Arabiya. The name of Baghdadi’s wife is mentioned as Asma Mohammad.

In November 2019, Turkish authorities said they had arrested one of Baghdadi’s wives in June 2018. According to Turkish media reports, the woman’s name is Asma Fawzi Mohammad Al Qubaysi.

IS was defeated by US-backed forces in Iraq in 2017. Two years later they also fell in Syria.

However, IS members still attack civilians and members of the security forces in these two countries.

Source: BBC