Iraqi court sentences 4 citizens repatriated from Syria to death over Daesh membership

Iraq's judiciary announced in a statement on Sunday that a criminal court in the capital Baghdad had convicted the four Iraqi men for joining Daesh, and “carrying out criminal operations that targeted innocent civilians with the aim of undermining peace and stability in Iraq and Syria.”

The statement added that the convicts were sentenced to "death by hanging" in accordance with Iraq's counter-terror law.

In February, Iraq's military said the US-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) had handed 280 Iraqi and foreign Takfiri militants to the Baghdad government.

Iraq has been trying hundreds of suspected Daesh members, many of whom were detained as the outfit’s strongholds crumbled throughout Iraq. This includes hundreds of foreigners.

Hundreds of European nationals traveled to the Middle East to join Daesh after the terror group captured large swathes of territory in Iraq and neighboring Syria in mid-2014.

Iraq's former Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared the end of military operations against Daesh in the Arab country on December 9, 2017.

On July 10 that year, he had formally declared victory over Daesh in Mosul, which served as the terrorists’ main urban stronghold in Iraq.

In the run-up to Mosul's liberation, Iraqi army soldiers and volunteer Hashd al-Sha’abi fighters had made sweeping gains against Daesh.

Iraqi forces took control of eastern Mosul in January 2017 after 100 days of fighting, and launched the battle in the west on February 19 last year.