A historic trial took place in March 2026 in Paris. French national and Islamic State (IS) member Sabri Essid was convicted of genocide and crimes against humanity for enslaving, imprisoning, torturing, raping, and committing other acts of persecution against several members of the Yazidi ethnic and religious minority group. The verdict was the first IS-related genocide conviction in France. The only problem: Essid never set foot in the courtroom. 

A “distinguished” company

Sabri Essid, born in 1984 in Toulouse, was part of the Artigat cell, an influential Islamist extremist network for radicalization and training before and during the rise of IS in the south of France. Essid and several other young men, including his stepbrother Mohammed Merah, either joined IS as foreign terrorist fighters or committed terrorist attacks. Essid travelled to IS territory in 2014, followed by his wife, his stepson and their children. As head of the notorious IS intelligence service Amni in Raqqa, Essid reportedly participated in the interrogations in Raqqa’s infamous prison. But what made Essid known internationally was his participation in an IS propaganda video showing his stepson, then aged 12, executing a hostage. Essid was reportedly killed, but his death has never been officially confirmed and the exact circumstances of it remain unclear.

“He was not anyone, he was not a simple fighter.” —A French secret service staffer testifying as an expert on Essid at the trial.

In addition to an investigation for terrorism charges in relation to the Artigat network, another criminal investigation into Essid was opened by the war crimes unit (CCH) of the French Counter-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office (PNAT). Consequently, Essid was charged with genocide and crimes against humanity, as well as complicity in those acts, against 18 Yazidi women and children. His trial – the first of a French national on such charges perpetrated against Yazidis – opened at the Specially Composed Assize Court in Paris on March 16, 2026. The problem: Essid did not show up. The trial was held in absentia. While this step made justice for Essid’s victims possible, it also raised serious due process concerns. During the trial, not even a state-funded defense counsel was present to question witnesses and record objections for future appeals. Finally, since Essid is presumed dead, the sentence likely will never be enforced or appealed.

Contextual Elements

To analyse the Essid trial, it is helpful to divide the proceedings into five parts. 

First, the presiding judge established the absence of the accused and the presence or absence of the involved parties, including several NGOs and Yazidi survivors as co-plaintiffs.

During the second portion of the trial, the context of the genocide against the Yazidi community was established. In trials, like Essid’s, dealing with core international crimes, “contextual elements” are integral to the legal definition of the offence. They can elevate an individual criminal act, like rape, to the international crime of genocide because the act was "committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population”. Context is also needed to establish the specific criminal intent. Under international law, the prosecution must prove that the perpetrator possessed "the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group." Finally, the context matters because it is the extreme gravity and international relevance of core international crimes that trigger universal jurisdiction, which, for example, enables French courts to hold trials for crimes allegedly committed in Syria or Iraq. 

Figure 1: An article published in IS' propaganda magazine Dabiq on “The revival of Slavery before the Hour.”

In the Essid trial, the genocide of the Yazidis by IS, as well as the lasting physical, psychological, social, and economic consequences on the Yazidi community, was established from multiple sources. Witnesses included investigators from the French intelligence services and France’s Central Office for the Suppression of Violence Against Persons; representatives of various international and national NGOs[AG1] , such as the Yazidi organizations Kinyat and Yazda; and several experts on international criminal law, including its application to slavery. Multiple documents and videos demonstrated how the IS propaganda machine provided the ideological justification for the genocide. 

Personal Tragedies

The trial’s third part focused on the Yazidi survivors themselves. Of the affected 18 women and children, some were unable or unwilling to appear in person. The presiding judge read aloud excerpts from their testimonies, which were collected by the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and Kinyat. Some victims were still missing but were mentioned by the other victims in their testimonies. Two victims described their ordeals in the hands of IS fighters—including Essid—and their life struggles after escaping. Essid’s trial was thus exceptional in another way: As Yazda’s Natia Navrouzov argued, “the absence of the accused created, somewhat unexpectedly, a more intimate space, one that allowed for a real platform for the Yazidi community. The focus was not on the accused, but on the crimes and those who endured them.”

The Importance of Intersectionality

Another unique aspect of the trial of Essid was the official recognition in a French court of the intersectionality of the crimes committed against the Yazidis. The trial and verdict established that Yazidis were persecuted as a religious and ethnic minority. However, how IS members treated that group depended on additional, intersecting grounds, such as the victims’ gender and age: adult men were forced to convert or shot, while adult women and children were enslaved. Young women were abused as domestic and/or sex slaves; young girls were groomed for those roles and resold; young boys were exploited as child soldiers. Such an intersection of criminal motives has largely been absent from the few convictions for core international crimes with regards to IS in other European countries. In conversation with the author, the PNAT stated that it was “indeed aware of the criticism levelled against German procedures.” As part of their closing argument – the fourth part of the trial – the French public prosecutor Sophie Havard asked the court to “note the existence of discriminatory motives based on religion, gender, and the victims’ age,” in accordance with Article 212-1 of the Penal Code.

On March 20, 2026, the court found Sabri Essid guilty on all counts and sentenced him to life in prison. During this fifth and final part of the trial, the three grounds for persecution – religion, gender, and age – were recognized by the court. Should Essid remain alive and one day be arrested, he will have the right under French law to demand a new trial.

With this verdict, France joined an exclusive group of countries whose courts convicted IS members of genocide and crimes against humanity committed against the Yazidi community: Germany (in which another trial on those charges is ongoing in Munich), the Netherlands, Sweden, and Belgium. As almost all of the other such convictions involved female perpetrators, it is commendable that a male perpetrator has been convicted – albeit in absentia. This essentially means that bringing IS members to justice for the whole range of crimes they have committed in Syria and Iraq is difficult but possible. It is also crucial for the Yazidis and the international community.