Iraq sentences 16 Turkish women to death for joining IS

Sixteen Turkish women have been sentenced to death by an Iraqi court for joining Islamic State group (IS), a judiciary spokesman said on Sunday.

Iraq has been carrying out the trials of hundreds of women who migrated to Iraq to join the extremist group with their children, after being detained by Iraqi forces in a widespread sweep since August as IS influence weakened in the war-torn country. 

The women will be executed by hanging.

Iraq’s central criminal court issued the death sentences "after it was proven they belong to the IS terrorist group and after they confessed to marrying IS elements or providing members of the group with logistical aid or helping them carry out terrorist attacks," Judge Abdel-Sattar al-Birqdar said.

All the verdicts are subject to appeal, he told Reuters.

Last Month, France pledged to "intervene" in case its nationals are sentenced to death in Iraq and Syria for belonging to IS.

Several dozen French nationals are believed to currently be held in detention in Iraq and Syria after an international military coalition rolled back advances made by the extremist group.

"Of course if there was a question of the death penalty, the French state will intervene," justice minister Nicole Belloubet told a host of French media outlets.

IS has carried out scores of atrocities in Iraq and Syria since proclaiming a "caliphate" there in 2014 and has also been behind a string of attacks in Europe, including the 2015 Paris carnage that left 130 people dead.  

Tens of thousands of foreign fighters joined the extremist group after it seized vast swathes of Iraq and Syria and declared a caliphate in 2014.