A French court sentenced Othman Garrido, a man accused of belonging to the Islamic State group (ISIS), to 30 years in prison after convicting him of murder as part of an organized criminal group.

Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported on Wednesday, September 23, that a special court in Paris handed down the sentence to Garrido, a 32-year-old French national, at the end of a week-long trial.

The agency said Garrido was convicted in connection with the public execution of two Iranians in Syria in September 2015, but was acquitted of a separate charge alleging that he had personally carried out the executions.

The sentence includes The sentence includes a 20-year minimum term before becoming eligible for parole.

AFP said Garrido portrayed himself during the trial as having been forced to comply with the group under threat of death.

ISIS seized vast areas of Iraq and Syria in 2014 as it sought to establish a “caliphate,” before it was later defeated.

The group included members from several European nationalities, among them about 1,500 French citizens who traveled to Iraq and Syria over the past decade to join ISIS, according to AFP.

ISIS Activity in Europe

Belgian authorities conducted a counterterrorism investigation targeting an international network, with assistance from the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (Europol), resulting in the conviction of seven suspects in Belgium who received prison sentences ranging from five to 15 years, in addition to heavy fines.

Europol said in June that the network consisted primarily of people of Chechen origin living in Europe who were found to have actively participated in supporting and financing activities linked to ISIS.

It added that Belgian counterterrorism units uncovered a sophisticated infrastructure during the investigation that included terrorist financing and money laundering through cryptocurrencies and facilitation networks.

According to Europol, the targeted network was also involved in financing the release of foreign terrorist fighters detained in conflict zones such as Syria, providing financial support to ISIS members in Syria and Central Asia, and financing the purchase of weapons and precursor materials for chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear weapons and explosives.

Six French Citizens Face Trial in Iraq

Six French citizens appeared before an Iraqi court in Baghdad on September 20 on suspicion of belonging to ISIS. They were part of a group of French nationals transferred from detention centers in northeastern Syria to Iraq during the past year.

An Iraqi judicial source told AFP that the trial session would include six French nationals whose identities Iraqi authorities had not disclosed, explaining that they belonged to a group of 47 French citizens transferred from Syria to Iraq in 2025.

The trial is part of a broader Iraqi judicial process dealing with thousands of people suspected of ISIS membership who were transferred from detention centers previously run by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in northeastern Syria.

Some of those transferred are suspected of committing crimes during ISIS control over large areas of Syria and Iraq since 2014, while Iraqi authorities say ongoing investigations include files related to killings, genocide and crimes committed against the Yazidi community.

Transfers from northeastern Syria to Iraq have not been limited to French nationals. During 2026, forces from the international coalition transferred thousands of people suspected of ISIS membership from detention centers in Syria to Iraq.

At the beginning of the year, more than 5,700 people from around 60 nationalities were transferred to Iraq after years of detention in prisons previously run by the SDF in northeastern Syria.

In early September, Iraq’s judiciary announced that it had completed the questioning of more than 5,700 people and moved to the next judicial stage, referring them to the competent courts.