Facts
Between 2014 and 2017, ISIS committed genocide against the Yazidi community in Iraq and Syria. ISIS committed multiple massacres, killing thousands of Yazidis, enslaving more than 6000 women and children and displacing hundreds of thousands.
Sammy D. was identified during the ongoing structural investigation in Belgium into crimes of genocide committed against the Yazidis in Syria and Iraq.
Procedure
In 2024, the Federal Prosecutor’s Office made its final submission with a view to referring Sammy D.’s case to the Brussels Court of Assizes (Cour d’assises). The Brussels Pre-Trial Chamber has issued an order in absentia for Sammy D. to be taken into custody. Sammy D. was reported to have been killed in Raqqa, Syria in 2016. Belgian authorities never received formal confirmation of his death, and opted to prosecute him in absentia.
On 3 November 2025, the trial in absentia of Sammy D. began. He was accused of raping and enslaving three women from the Yazidi community.
On 13 November 2025, Sammy D. was found guilty of genocide against the Yazidi minority in Iraq and Syria. He was also found guilty of crimes against humanity for the rape and sexual enslavement of Yazidi women.