ISIS member Djedou is being tried in absentia at the Brussels Assize Court (Cour d’assises) for genocide and crimes against humanity.
Born in Laeken, Djedou was sentenced to 13 years in prison in 2021 for leading a terrorist organization. However, he is alleged to have been killed in a 2016 airstrike by the US-led International Coalition. As there is no definitive proof of his death, the Belgian judiciary has decided to continue the case.
According to investigations, Djedou systematically subjected three Yazidi women to sexual violence by enslaving them during ISIS’ 2014 attack on the Shengal (Sinjar) region. The women were held captive for years, beaten, and repeatedly raped. These crimes are considered part of ISIS’ policy of genocide against the Yazidi people.
While Djedou’s victims were identified in Iraq and Syria, the investigation was conducted jointly by Belgium, Iraq, and France. International associations working with Yazidi women and the Belgian organization for victims of terrorism, V-Europe, supported the process.
The case is the first of its kind in Belgium in terms of prosecuting ISIS members for war crimes. Authorities have announced that investigations are ongoing against two other Belgian ISIS members, who are alleged to have been involved in similar crimes.
The defendant may no longer be alive, but according to prosecutors, this case is of historic importance in terms of the Yazidi women’s demand for justice and the recording of the crimes against humanity committed by ISIS.
Background: Genocide of the Yazidis in Shengal
On 3 August 2014, the Islamic State attacked the Shengal region in northern Iraq with the aim of wiping out the Yazidi community, which had already been persecuted for centuries. Through systematic massacres, rape, torture, expulsion, enslavement of girls and women and the forced recruitment of boys as child soldiers, the Yazidis experienced what they call the “Ferman” – the 74th genocide in their history. According to the UN, at least 10,000 people were killed, about half of them children. Of the thousands who starved, died of thirst or of their injuries while fleeing to the mountains, almost all were children (93 percent). ISIS forced boys as young as seven to work as child soldiers in its training camps. Girls were raped and sexually enslaved, and more than 400,000 people were driven from their homes.
According to estimates by the Yazda organization, around 2,700 Yazidi are still missing today, including around 1,300 who were children at the time of their abduction. Many of them are still systematically raped and kept and sold as slaves. Therefore, this genocide in its form also represents a femicide. The organization Nadia’s Initiative assumes that 300 to 400 girls and boys under the age of 18 are still in the hands of ISIS. More than 3,500 Yazidi have been rescued, including 2,000 children.
Source: ANF News
