Facts
In August 2014, ISIS fighters invaded Mount Sinjar, the stronghold of the Yazidis, a Kurdish-speaking religious minority in northern Iraq. Thousands were killed and thousands of women and teenage girls were kidnapped and sexually enslaved in Iraq and Syria.
Abdelnasser Benyoucef, an eminent member of ISIS, allegedly left France for Syria in 2013.
His wife, Sonia Mejri, allegedly left France for Syria in 2014.
They are both accused of having enslaved a young Yazidi woman in 2015.
Procedure
While investigating Sonia Mejri for terrorism charges, the investigative judges heard the Yazidi victim on 7 February 2024. She then became a civil party in the case.
On 24 September 2024, the investigative judges issued their final order to send Abdelnasser Benyoucef and Sonia Mejri to trial on the charges of serious bodily and mental harm constituting genocide; enslavement, imprisonment, torture, persecution and other inhumane acts constituting crimes against humanity; and complicity in these crimes. Sonia Mejri appealed this order.
On 22 January 2025, the Paris Court of Appeal cancelled the charges against Sonia Mejri of genocide and crimes against humanity as a direct perpetrator and sent her to trial for complicity in rapes constituting crimes against humanity and participation in a terrorist group.
Abdelnasser Benyoucef is presumed dead in Syria. However, in the absence of evidence certifying his death, French courts have jurisdiction to try him in absentia.