More than 40 foreign women accused of being Islamic State (ISIS) brides have been sentenced to death by a court in Iraq after being given just 10 minutes to plead for their lives.
Many of the group begged for mercy during the short hearings and insisted they had been duped into moving to ISIS-controlled territory by their jihadi husbands.
Dozens more women have been sentenced to life in prison for their ISIS links as Iraqis rebuild their war-torn country after large swathes of land were occupied by the brutal terror group.
French citizen Djamila Boutoutaou told a Baghdad court she was “tricked” into moving ISIS’ so-called caliphate in Iraq by her husband, who was killed during as US-led forces stormed the ISIS stronghold of Mosul.
At a hearing last month, the 29-year-old mother said:
“I thought I had married a rapper.”It was only when we arrived in Turkey for a week-long ‘holiday’ that I discovered my husband was a jihadist.”I’m a victim. My husband beat me and locked me up in a cave with my children when I refused to follow him to Syria.”
She was sentenced to life in prison despite her lawyers not being there to defend her.
Mrs Boutoutaou appeared in court again last week where she begged to keep hold of her daughter, according to The Guardian.
She said
: “I’m going mad here. I’m facing a death sentence or life in prison. No one tells me anything, not the ambassador, not people in prison.”
“Don’t let them take my daughter away. I am willing to offer money if you can contact my parents. Please get me out of here.”
She is one of an estimated 40,000 foreigners who travelled to join ISIS before the group was all but stamped out in Iraq and Syria.
Last month, a court in Baghdad sentenced 19 Russian women to life in prison for travelling to Iraq to join jihadis, Al Jazeera reported.
The women, many of whom were accompanied by their young children, told the court they had been misled into making the trip.
One said: “I did not know we were in Iraq … I went with my husband and my children to Turkey to live there and then I suddenly discovered I was actually in Iraq.”
The Daily Express
Emeh Achanga,the CEO of the Miss Petite Nigeria Brand is a lawyer turned blogger. She is very passionate about writing, with several publications and awards to her credit .She is currently working on publishing a collection of short stories which are basically a memoir about her exciting true experiences.
