4 March 2026.
What are the facts behind the case?
On 3 August 2014, the Islamic State (ISIS) launched a large-scale coordinated attack on Mount Sinjar, located in northwestern Iraq, home to many Yazidis, an ethnic and religious minority considered heretical by IS. As a result of this attack, more than 70,000 Yazidis were forced to flee to the Sinjar Mountains in extremely difficult conditions. Among them, more than 1,700 died from hunger, dehydration, or injuries, 93% of whom were children. In the villages, Yazidi men were forced to convert and subjected to forced labor. Those who refused were summarily executed. Their bodies were thrown into mass graves.
Yazidi women and girls were separated according to age and marital status before being sold or given to ISIS fighters as sex slaves and/or domestic slaves. They were forcibly converted and compelled to practice Islam. Young boys were enlisted in ISIS forces and indoctrinated by the group. The Islamic State publicly claimed responsibility for the crimes committed against the Yazidis, viewing it as a "religious imperative" to fight and destroy those they considered to be heretics.
Among those responsible for these crimes were a number of European nationals who had joined the ranks of ISIS. The number of foreign fighters present was estimated at more than 25,000 in 2015. The majority of these fighters came from Tunisia, France, Jordan, the United Kingdom, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and Australia.
Under what circumstances was the investigation opened and how did it lead to Sabri Essid being sent to trial before the Paris Criminal Court?
In December 2016, the French Prosecutor’s Office opened a so-called "structural" preliminary investigation aimed at establishing crimes committed by ISIS fighters against the Yazidis and other ethnic or religious minorities, and at identifying potential French perpetrators.
In order to collect testimonies from Yazidi survivors, FIDH and Kinyat conducted a documentation mission in Iraq in 2017 and published the report "Sexual and gender-based crimes against the Yazidi Community: the role of ISIS foreign fighters". 17 of the testimonies collected within the framework of this report were shared with the Office of the Prosecutor of the French war crimes unit. With the support of FIDH and Kinyat, several Yazidi women who had identified French nationals among their captors were interviewed by French investigators.
In 2019, based on information provided by FIDH and Kinyat, as well as on the testimonies of Yazidi survivors, French authorities identified Sabri Essid, alias Abou Dojanah al-Faransi, and opened a judicial investigation against him. During the course of the investigation, which lasted five years, two Yazidi survivors joined the case as civil parties. Three other Yazidi survivors were identified as victims of Sabri Essid.
In February 2020, investigating judges issued an arrest warrant for Sabri Essid. In October 2024, investigative judges sent Sabri Essid to trial before the Paris Criminal Court. He is accused of having committed, between August 2014 and throughout 2016, serious bodily or mental harm constituting genocide, as well as acts of enslavement, imprisonment, torture, rape, persecution and other inhuman acts constituting crimes against humanity, and of complicity in these crimes, against Yazidi women and children in Syria. He is also accused of complicity in these crimes for having participated in the transfer of enslaved women and children in 2015.
Why does France have jurisdiction over these crimes, and why is this trial historic?
By virtue of active personality jurisdiction, French courts have jurisdiction to hear cases involving crimes committed by French nationals abroad, regardless of the nationality of the victim or the location where the crime was committed. Sabri Essid is a French national. France therefore has jurisdiction to try him for the crimes he is accused of, even though they were committed against Yazidi victims in Syria.
This trial will be historic as it will be the first trial in France relating to crimes committed against the Yazidis. Furthermore, Sabri Essid will be the first French national to be tried for the crime of genocide.
Who is Sabri Essid, who will be tried in absentia by the Paris Criminal Court, and what is he accused of?
Sabri Essid is a French national originally from Toulouse who began to radicalize in the early 2000s and was part of the Artigat Salafist community in Toulouse and Albi, alongside the Clain brothers and Mohamed Merah. He traveled to Syria in 2006 to join a terrorist group affiliated with al-Qaeda, before being expelled by the Syrian authorities. Upon his return to France, he was sentenced in July 2009 to five years in prison for participating in a terrorist entreprise.
In 2014, he left France again to travel to Syria and join the ranks of ISIS. He was joined there by his wife and their three children, as well as his wife’s son. Sabri Essid then joined the AMNI, ISIS’s department responsible for counterintelligence and control of civilian populations in territories occupied by ISIS, and became an emir.
Sabri Essid is accused of purchasing and enslaving Yazidi women and children between August 2014 and 2016, depriving them of their liberty, water, food, and medical care, and subjecting them to repeated rape and sexual violence. He is also accused of participating in the transfer of Yazidi slaves after they were purchased by other members of ISIS.
How will the trial take place in France?
Sabri Essid is presumed dead in Syria. However, in the absence of evidence certifying his death, French courts have jurisdiction to try him. Three Yazidi survivors will be civil parties to the proceedings. Two of them will be present during the trial. The Yazidi associations Kinyat, Free Yezidi Foundation (FYF), and Yazda will also be civil parties, alongside FIDH and the LDH.
In accordance with French law, Sabri Essid will be tried in absentia before the Paris Criminal Court, composed of three professional judges, without a jury. The trial will be shorter than a trial in the presence of the accused and will last five days, from March 16 to 20, 2026. As a comparison, trials for international crimes held in France to date, with the accused present, have lasted between 3 to 8 weeks.
During the trial, the civil parties and witnesses will testify before the court. At the end of the trial, the verdict will be issued on the same day, and if the defendant is found guilty, the Paris Criminal Court will issue a new arrest warrant on the basis of his conviction. If he is arrested, he will have the right to request to be retried by the court.
The trial will take place from March 16 to 20, 2026, at the Paris Court of Appeal (8 Boulevard du Palais, 75001, Paris). The hearings will be held in the Ezratty courtroom.