An Iraqi court sentences 7 French citizens to lengthy prison terms over Islamic State membership

BAGHDAD (AP) — An Iraqi court on Tuesday sentenced seven French citizens convicted of terrorism charges to lengthy prison terms over membership in the militant Islamic State group , officials said.

The seven were among 47 French citizens accused of IS ties who had previously been held in Syria and were handed over to Iraq for prosecution last year.

Six of the defendants were given life sentences while the seventh was sentenced to 15 years by Iraq's Supreme Judicial Council. It said that defense attorneys and representatives of the French Embassy were present for the proceedings.

The seven were deemed to be “highly dangerous due to their role in threatening Iraq’s national security, destabilizing Iraq and Syria, and their involvement in inciting terrorist operations in other countries,” the court said in a statement.

The militant group rampaged across Iraq in 2014, seizing large swaths of territory in the country's west and in neighboring Syria, where it set up the headquarters of its Islamic caliphate. While the militant group lost control of that territory years ago, it still has active cells that periodically carry out attacks in both countries.

Iraq is now holding thousands of suspected IS members in detention, including more than 5,700 prisoners who were transferred from northeastern Syria to Iraq after fighting broke out in January between Syrian government forces and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, which had long guarded the detention centers where the militants and their families were held after the fall of the caliphate.

Some IS-linked prisoners had managed to flee during the January clashes , and there were fears of a larger escape, leading to the transfer of the remaining detainees to Iraq.

Iraq's National Security Advisor Qasim al-Aboudi told The Associated Press earlier this month that Syria has requested the approximately 4,000 Syrians accused of being IS members and held in Iraq be handed over to Damascus for trial in Syria, but that Baghdad has refused.

Al-Aboudi said that after their trials in Iraq, some of the prisoners could be returned to their home countries to serve out their sentences.

It was not immediately clear if the convicted French nationals might be repatriated.

Iraq in the past has frequently executed defendants convicted on terrorism charges, drawing criticism from human rights groups, but it does not apply the death sentence to foreign nationals whose own countries do not enforce capital punishment.