Judges in Iraq showed no mercy for a group of foreign women who were given just 10 minutes to plead their case, as 40 ISIS widows were handed the death sentence because they apparently supported their radical husbands.
Djamila Boutoutao, 29, who said she is originally from France, told the Iraqi court that she was a victim and thought her husband was a rap artist but learned later that he was actually a jihadist.
"My husband beat me and locked me up in a cave with my children when I refused to follow him," Boutoutao said in her plea.
Now a widow, Boutoutao is one of nearly two thousand foreigners who travelled to Iraq and Syria to join ISIS. Boutoutao's fate has not yet been determined but in the week she faced the judge in court, 40 women were sentenced to death while 300 have already been executed, The Sun reported.
Boutoutao's husband was killed in 2016 in Mosul, according to The Guardian. Kurdish military forces captured her in Iraq with her daughter and they were sent to a Baghdad prison.
The ISIS widow said that her life has been unbearable since meeting her husband. Worse, no one has briefed and talked to her about her case in Iraq. No witnesses could also confirm that she came from Lille in France.
Apparently, governments in Europe have shown little concern for these foreign women because they made their choice to become ISIS brides.
"In the minds of Iraqis and the judiciary and the government, by virtue of the fact that you are foreign and chose to live in ISIS territory there is a level of agency in what you did and more culpability," Belkis Willie, of Human Rights Watch told The Guardian. "If you buy a plane ticket, cross a border and make your choices, you are far more exposed," he added.
After her 10-minute plea to the judge, Boutoutao was ordered to sit in the corner along with 15 other foreign women from Germany, Britain and America.
Samatha Sally, an ISIS bride from Indiana who is awaiting her sentence from the Iraqi court, said that her Moroccan-husband fooled her into marriage. She claims he tortured and sexually abused her, and forced her 10-year-old son to appear in an ISIS video to threaten President Donald Trump.
