Yazidi woman testifies about IS sexual slavery in Paris court

Landmark Legal Proceedings

A Paris court this week heard devastating testimony from a Yazidi survivor of Islamic State (IS) sexual slavery before sentencing a French jihadist to life imprisonment for genocide and crimes against humanity. The proceedings mark the first case in France to address atrocities committed against the Yazidi minority during the IS campaign in the Middle East [Sources: France 24, RFI; Confidence: High].

The trial unfolded across two days: Thursday featured the survivor's testimony, while Friday brought the verdict against Sabri Essid, a French national born in 1984 who joined IS in Syria in 2014 [Source: RFI; Confidence: High].

The Survivor's Testimony

On Thursday, a 32-year-old Yazidi woman testified before the Paris tribunal, describing in stark detail the horrors she endured during approximately two and a half years of captivity [Source: France 24; Confidence: High]. The woman—whose name is being withheld to protect her privacy—spoke through an interpreter, appearing frail against the imposing wood panelling of the Paris courthouse as she recounted her ordeal [Source: France 24; Confidence: High].

Note: RFI's coverage focused on Friday's legal verdict and omitted the graphic details of Thursday's testimony, while France 24 provided extensive coverage of the survivor's account but did not report the Friday sentencing outcome.

Details of Captivity

The woman testified that her life changed forever in August 2014, when IS swept over the Sinjar Mountains, the historic homeland of the Kurdish-speaking Yazidi minority in northern Iraq [Source: France 24; Confidence: High]. Before the jihadists arrived, "we weren't a very wealthy family, but we were happy," she told the court [Source: France 24; Confidence: High].

Captured along with her two-year-old daughter and husband, the family remained together for several months before jihadists separated her from her husband, whom she never saw again [Sources: France 24, RFI; Confidence: High]. The woman stated she passed through a total of eight "owners" during her captivity [Source: France 24; Confidence: High].

She spent approximately 40 days under Essid's control, during which she was raped daily [Source: France 24; Confidence: High]. She testified that Essid took pills to boost his sexual performance and that she slashed her own arm with a knife to prevent him from separating her from her daughter [Source: France 24; Confidence: Single-source detail].

The survivor described being sold at a market where she was paraded in a public square wearing her finest clothes [Source: France 24; Confidence: High]. Her first buyer, a Saudi man, allegedly claimed he sold his gun and car to purchase her [Source: France 24; Confidence: Single-source detail]. Essid later took her to a beauty salon, made her wear a red sequin dress and makeup, and prepared photos for her resale [Source: France 24; Confidence: Single-source detail].

She eventually escaped with her daughter by taking a taxi and walking through the night to reach Kurdish forces [Source: France 24; Confidence: High].

The Verdict

On Friday, the Paris Assizes Court found Sabri Essid guilty in absentia of genocide, crimes against humanity, and complicity in these crimes committed between 2014 and 2016 [Source: RFI; Confidence: High]. Presiding judge Marc Sommerer stated that "Sabri Essid took part in the genocide perpetrated by Islamic State" and became "part of the criminal network repeatedly buying and reselling a very large number of Yazidi victims" [Source: RFI; Confidence: High].

Note: France 24's coverage, published after Thursday's testimony, did not include Friday's verdict, while RFI emphasized the legal outcome over the specific testimony details.

Essid is presumed to have been killed in 2018, but without proof of his death, French law permitted trial and conviction in absentia [Sources: France 24, RFI; Confidence: High]. The court specifically noted that Essid was accused of buying several Yazidi women at markets, repeatedly raping them, and depriving them of water and food [Source: RFI; Confidence: High].

The Defendant's Background

Essid, also known by his nom de guerre Abu Dojanah al-Faransi, was thought to be close to Jean-Michel and Fabien Clain, the brothers who claimed responsibility for France's worst-ever jihadist attacks in Paris in 2015 [Source: RFI; Confidence: High].

According to court evidence cited by RFI, Essid's wife, children, and her son from a previous relationship joined him in Syria. A 2015 IS propaganda video showed Essid pushing his 12-year-old stepson to shoot a Palestinian hostage [Source: RFI; Confidence: High]. Essid's wife has been jailed since returning to France [Source: RFI; Confidence: High].

International Context

The Paris trial occurs within a growing body of international jurisprudence addressing crimes against the Yazidi community. Islamic State regarded the Yazidis—followers of a pre-Islamic, non-Muslim monotheistic faith—as heretics and specifically targeted them for their religious beliefs [Sources: France 24, RFI; Confidence: High]. In August 2014, IS murdered thousands of Yazidi men in Iraq's Sinjar province and abducted thousands of women and children to sell as sex slaves [Source: RFI; Confidence: High].

United Nations investigators have qualified these actions as genocide [Source: RFI; Confidence: High]. According to Hussein Qaidi, who heads the Kidnapped Yazidi Rescue Office, IS abducted 6,416 Yazidis, more than half of whom have since been rescued [Source: RFI; Confidence: High].

This case follows a 2021 German court ruling—the first worldwide to recognize crimes against the Yazidi community as genocide—which sentenced an Iraqi man to life in prison [Source: RFI; Confidence: High]. Last month, a Swedish court convicted a 52-year-old woman of genocide for keeping Yazidi women and children as slaves in Syria in 2015 [Source: RFI; Confidence: High].

Note: While both sources confirmed this is the first French case addressing IS atrocities against Yazidis, France 24 omitted the specific charge of depriving victims of water and food, as well as details of Essid's family connections and the German/Swedish precedents.