BRUSSELS: A Brussels court on Thursday found a Belgian militant-- presumed killed in a 2016 airstrike — guilty of genocide against the Yazidi minority in Iraq and Syria.
Sammy Djedou, a former fighter with the Daesh group, was reported by the Pentagon to have been killed in Raqqa, Syria.
Belgian authorities never received formal confirmation of his death, and opted to prosecute him in absentia, in the country’s first trial related to mass crimes against the Yazidis.
Djedou, previously convicted in absentia on Belgian terrorism charges, was found guilty of “genocide” for his role from 2014 onwards in an Daesh campaign to exterminate the minority group.
He was also found guilty of “crimes against humanity” for the rape and sexual enslavement of Yazidi women.
