Iraq issues a death sentence against the wife of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi
Welat TV - Erbil
Iraqi judicial authorities issued a death sentence against the wife of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the former leader of the Islamic State (ISIS).
According to the Iraqi News Agency (INA), the ruling was issued on Wednesday, July 10, 2024, by the Karkh Criminal Court, against the backdrop of its involvement in actions with “ISIS terrorist gangs.”
A statement issued by the Iraqi Judicial Council explained that the convict detained Yazidi women in her home, and then they were kidnapped by ISIS members in the Shingal district, west of Nineveh Governorate. The ruling issued against her was based on the provisions of Article Four of Iraqi Law, in terms of Article Two of the Anti-Terrorism Law No. 13 of 2005, and also the provisions of Article Seven of the Yazidi Women Survivors Law No. 8 of 2021.
In mid-February, the Saudi Al-Arabiya channel conducted an interview with al-Baghdadi’s wife, Asma Muhammad, in which she provided information about her husband’s life, the most prominent stages of his personality development, and the scenes of his work during the height of the organization’s activity in Syria and Iraq. During her speech, Asma Muhammad indicated that she moved with her family after 2012 to the Syrian province of Raqqa, after she had been residing in Iraq.
She explained that al-Baghdadi was staying with other leaders in the organization, separately from his family, in the same area. She added that she was not aware of the family's plan to move from Iraq, but in 2012 she was informed that the entire family would move to another place, which she did not know at the time.
In mid-February, the Iraqi judicial authorities announced the interrogation of the family of former ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, explaining that they had been recovered from outside Iraq.
The statement did not specify the number of Al-Baghdadi family members who were arrested, nor their identity, nor from which country they were recovered. A judicial source told France Persse Agency that “the intelligence service, in cooperation with the Turkish authorities, “recovered Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s wife and her children,” adding that she “was arrested in Turkey.”
In November 2019, Turkey announced the arrest of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s widow, along with 10 other people, including the daughter of the organization’s former leader. A Turkish official said at the time that she was Al-Baghdadi’s “first wife,” and she was arrested in 2018 in the Turkish province of Hatay, bordering Syria. According to the official, al-Baghdadi’s wife “provided numerous information about al-Baghdadi and the internal work of the organization.” The Turkish media explained that this wife’s name is Asma Fawzi Muhammad al-Kubaisi, and his daughter’s name is Laila.