French lawyers for suspected ISIL members transferred from Syria say the men are being treated inhumanely in Iraqi prisons.
Published on January 29, 2026
Lawyers for a group of French nationals accused of being part of ISIL (ISIS) and transferred by the US from Syria to a prison in Iraq say the prisoners have been subjected to “torture and inhumane treatment”.
French media reported Wednesday that lawyers Marie Doss and Mathieu Bagard met the accused men during a recent visit to Baghdad and said their clients had been detained in Iraq.
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The abuse – including slapping, strangling, handcuffing behind their backs and threatening to rape them with iron bars – with a “pulley system” to get them to “confess their presence in Iraq” during their alleged time in ISIL – would give the Iraqi justice system the power to try them for their alleged crimes, lawyers said.
Prosecutors say the accused ISIL members assured us they were not in Iraq before their arrest in Syria and their transfer to Baghdad.
Death in Syrian Custody
During their two-day visit, which began on Sunday, lawyers acting on behalf of the prisoners’ families said they met 13 of the 47 French nationals accused of being members of ISIL in Iraq.
The 13 said they were arrested between 2017 and March 23, 2019, the day ISIL lost control of Baghouz in Syria, ending its final hold on the territory.
He said he was held in a prison in northeastern Syria under challenging conditions, where four French prisoners died of illness and “severe deprivation,” and that he was interrogated on several occasions by the FBI, CIA and other agencies representing France and the European Union.
US military transfers
The lawyers made the comments as large numbers of ISIL prisoners from prisons and detention camps in Syria were being transferred to Iraq on US military flights.
The wave of transfers follows a recent crackdown by Syrian government forces in the northeast The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which the US has trained and supported to fight ISIL. The SDF has controlled camps and prisons housing suspected ISIL members for years.
During the fighting in ISIL prisoners escape Cities like Al-Shaddadi Concerns that they could regroup and pose a security threat led the US military to arrange flights to transfer the prisoners to Iraqi prisons.
The Associated Press news agency reported on Sunday that 275 prisoners had been transferred so far, while the Anadolu Agency said thousands more were planned to be transferred under the deal.
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammad Shia al-Sudani said on Sunday that the transfer of ISIL captives was “temporary” and called on countries to send back their citizens.
In a separate statement on Sunday, Iraq’s Supreme Judicial Council said it would prosecute the transferred detainees after a meeting of top security and political officials.