\n A Belgian jihadist accused of acts of genocide against the Yazidi religious minority in Iraq and Syria -- and presumed killed in conflict -- went on trial in absentia Thursday in Brussels.\n<\/p>\n
\n Sammy Djedou, a former fighter with the Islamic State (IS) group, was reported by the Pentagon to have been killed in a 2016 airstrike in Raqqa, Syria.\n<\/p>\n
\n Belgian authorities never received formal confirmation of his death, and opted to prosecute him in absentia, in the country's first trial related to mass crimes against the Yazidis.\n<\/p>\n
\n Previously convicted in absentia on Belgian terrorism charges, Djedou faces charges of \"genocide\" for his alleged role from 2014 onwards in an IS campaign to exterminate the minority group.\n<\/p>\n
\n He also stands accused of \"crimes against humanity\" for the suspected rape and sexual enslavement of Yazidi women.\n<\/p>\n
\n Three Yazidi victims have been identified, two of whom were minors at the time of the crimes allegedly committed between November 2014 and December 2016.\n<\/p>\n
\n Two are plaintiffs in the case and all three are expected to testify about their ordeal before the Brussels criminal court, with the trial expected to last a week.\n<\/p>\n
\n The Belgian counter-terrorism investigation relies heavily on evidence gathered by journalists and NGOs operating in war zones following the fall of IS's last stronghold in Baghouz, Syria, in 2019.\n<\/p>\n
\n - Mass persecution -\n<\/p>\n
\n Born in Brussels in August 1989 to a Belgian mother and Ivorian father, Djedou converted to Islam at age 15 and left for Syria in October 2012 to join IS, according to the investigation.\n<\/p>\n
\n He is later believed to have become a senior figure in the group's external operations unit, tasked with planning attacks in Europe.\n<\/p>\n
\n In 2021, he was sentenced in Belgium to 13 years in prison for leading a terrorist group.\n<\/p>\n
\n He was also targeted in a 2022 trial into support networks behind the November 13, 2015 attacks in Paris that claimed 130 lives. He was convicted in that case but received no prison sentence.\n<\/p>\n
\n The Yazidis, a Kurdish-speaking minority practising a pre-Islamic faith, were primarily settled in northern Iraq before suffering mass persecution by IS beginning in August 2014.\n<\/p>\n
\n Thousands fled as the jihadists launched brutal attacks in a campaign that UN investigators have qualified as genocide.\n<\/p>\n
\n According to the United Nations, thousands of Yazidi women and girls were subjected to rape, abduction, and inhumane treatment including slavery.\n<\/p>\n
\n Prosecutors in the Djedou case argue that IS \"institutionalised the sexual enslavement of Yazidi women,\" turning it into a form of trade that became a significant part of the group's economy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A Belgian jihadist accused of acts of genocide against the Yazidi religious minority in Iraq and Syria -- and presumed killed in conflict -- went on trial in absentia Thursday in Brussels. Sammy Djedou, a former fighter with the Islamic State (IS) group, was reported by the Pentagon to have been killed in a 2016 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-151885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n