France and Sweden launch investigative team to prosecute ISIS members for crimes against Christians and Yazidis in Iraq
by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) – France and Sweden have launched a joint effort to investigate and prosecute foreign ISIS fighters who committed genocidal crimes against Christians and Yazidis in Iraq in 2014, International Christian Concern (ICC) reports.
The two countries have appointed a joint investigative team that will work together with the European Union Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation (Eurojust), ICC said.
Thousands of Christians and Yazidis were slaughtered or enslaved as ISIS tried to take over Iraq and Syria in 2014. In May 2021 a UN investigations team determined “there is clear and convincing evidence that the crimes” perpetrated by ISIS “against the Yazidi people clearly constituted genocide.” Moreover, hundreds of thousands of Christians were forced to flee their homes, and many remain too afraid to return.
Explaining the purpose of their new collaboration with Sweden and France, Eurojust said: “The main aim of the JIT [Joint Investigation Team] will be to identify FTFs [foreign terrorist fighters] who were involved in core international crimes, such as genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, primarily perpetrated against members of the Yazidi minority during the armed conflict in Syria and Iraq,” said the group in a recent statement.
Eurojust also said that the French and Swedish team would offer “added value” to other EU member states or third countries, “who want to end the impunity of Foreign Terrorist Fighters involved in core international crimes such as slavery or sexual violence against members of the Yazidi community,” Middle East Eye reported.
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