The National reported that Thomas Barnouin, 45, pleaded guilty in Baghdad on Sunday, Nov. 1, to membership in the Islamic State group (ISIS) and terrorist acts that put public order and lives at risk.
Barnouin told the court, “I deeply regret joining this organisation,” The National reported. The newspaper said he testified that he went to Syria after appeals to fight the government of Bashar al-Assad. He said he joined ISIS in 2014, went first to Latakia and later translated material at Al Hayat Media Centre in Raqqa province. The National also reported Barnouin’s claim that he had not taken part in criminal operations.
A 2017 report by Le Monde said Kurdish fighters took Barnouin into custody in Syria in mid-December. The newspaper also reported that he received a prison sentence in France in 2009, returned to Syria in 2014 and had links to the Artigat network.
The Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) said Iraqi authorities took responsibility in 2025 for 47 French nationals moved from northeastern Syria. The National reported Barnouin was in that group. In separate cases, the Karkh Criminal Court gave six French defendants life terms and sentenced another to 15 years on Oct. 27, the SJC said. Three more French defendants received life sentences on Oct. 29. The council said the later rulings cited Iraq’s Counter-Terrorism Law No. 13 of 2005 and Article 132(1) of the Penal Code. EconoTimes previously covered the three French life sentences.
Separately, the European Court of Human Rights rejected interim-measures requests from 25 French nationals detained in Iraq. The applicants primarily sought repatriation or the carrying out of French arrest or search warrants. Alternatively, they asked the French government to seek assurances against death sentences and secure fair trials, the court said. Its announcement did not identify Barnouin as an applicant.
Le Monde also reported that 11 French nationals transferred to Iraq in 2018 were sentenced to death in 2019, with those sentences later commuted to life imprisonment. The National reported that a verdict in Barnouin’s case is expected Nov. 18.
