Yazidis seek ICC probe into IS atrocities

Iraq’s Yazidi minority — the target of brutal attacks from the Islamic State group — urges the International Criminal Court Thursday to launch probes into the militants for genocide and sexual slavery.

Two Yazidi groups hand over documents to the court which show “that ISIS has systematically committed atrocities amounting to genocide and that these crimes fall within the jurisdiction of the ICC,” said Murad Ismael from the Yazda group.

Chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda earlier this year said IS has committed crimes of “unspeakable cruelty” including mass executions, rape and torture.

But she said she could not investigate as neither Iraq nor Syria are signatories to the court and her “jurisdictional basis… is too narrow.”

The new report however specifically names some 20 foreign fighters from countries who have signed the ICC’s founding Rome Statute.

— AFP