Iraqi court frees French national citing lack of evidence for joining IS
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E-mail Xinhua, April 19, 2019
BAGHDAD, April 18 (Xinhua) -- An Iraqi court on Thursday freed a French national suspected of joining the Islamic State (IS) militant group for lack of evidence, the Iraqi judiciary said.
The French defendant, who was previously transferred from neighboring Syria, was released by the Investigative Court of Karkh in Baghdad "for lack of evidence after three months of investigation," said a statement by the Iraqi Supreme Judicial Council.
"The investigation did not prove the French national was involved in any military act, and his entry to Syria was to support the Yazidi issue," the statement added.
The Yazidis are ethno-religious Iraqi minority. In 2014, the IS militants abducted and enslaved hundreds of Yazidi women and children, but most of them escaped or were freed after the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) liberated the IS stronghold in Baghouz, the last IS-held area in the eastern Euphrates River region in Syria's eastern province of Deir al-Zour.
On Feb. 21, the Iraqi intelligence service announced the arrest of 13 French nationals with suspected links to the IS, some of whom are of Arab origin, during an operation inside Syrian territories. Enditem
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