In Kocho, Iraq, August 3, 2021, where Yazidis murdered by the Islamic State group were buried in a mass grave. LAURENCE GEAI FOR LE MONDE
Twelve years after the August 2014 attack on Mount Sinjar in Iraq, which marked the beginning of a vast plan to eradicate the Yazidi community, the French judiciary is, for the first time, examining the crimes committed against the Iraqi minority by the Islamic State group (IS) at the trial of a French jihadist. Sabri Essid, who is being tried from Monday, March 16, before the Paris criminal court for genocide and crimes against humanity, is the first French national to be tried for "genocide." Previously, Maurice Papon was convicted in 1997 of crimes against humanity for his role in the Holocaust.
While other European countries, such as Germany and Sweden, have previously convicted IS members for international crimes, France had until now prosecuted its jihadist fighters under a single charge: terrorist criminal conspiracy.
Essid's trial, which is likely to be followed by at least three more trials of French nationals for "genocide" against the Yazidis, will broaden the perspective of the justice system and French society on the atrocities committed by the jihadist group against Syrian and Iraqi civilians.
