Deputy Daesh leader receives death sentence

An Iraqi court yesterday sentenced Ismail Al-Ithawi, Daesh’s deputy leader, to death, Iraqi and international media reported.

Judge Abdel-Sattar Al-Birqdar, the official spokesperson for the Iraqi High Judicial Council, said that Al-Karakh Criminal Court had finished looking into Al-Ithawi’s case.

He also said that the suspect fled to Syria and was involved in Daesh activities there.

Al-Birqdar said that Al-Ithawi was captured in a joint operation by Iraqi-Turkish intelligence agencies and then sent to Iraq.

Read: Iraqi police kill 10 Daesh militants in Mosul

Media reports said that Al-Ithawi cooperated with the Iraqi authorities to track down a number of dangerous Daesh figures, but he was sentenced to death because Iraqi law does not guarantee immunity from prosecution following cooperation with the authorities.

On Tuesday,  Iraq’s Central Criminal Court sentenced a Belgian to death by hanging as a senior foreign fighter for Daesh.

Tarek Jadaoun, 30, also known as Abu Hamza Al-Beljiki, joined Daesh in 2014 and was arrested in Mosul last summer.

“Al-Beljiki, who is of Moroccan origin, is one of the most wanted foreign fighters who fought on behalf of the terrorist organisation in Syria and Iraq,” Al-Birqdar said in a statement.