19 September 2018•Update: 19 September 2018
BAGHDAD
An Iraqi court on Wednesday sentenced a leading member of the Daesh terrorist group to death, according to a judicial source.
“The criminal court in Karkh [a district of Baghdad] has finished looking into the case of convicted terrorist Ismail al-Ithawi,” Abdulsattar Bayrkdar, a spokesman for Iraq’s Supreme Judicial Council, said in a statement.
According to Bayrkdar, al-Ithawi has held several important posts in the terrorist group, including assistant to Daesh leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
“At one point, al-Ithawi to Syria before fleeing to Turkey after most of Iraq was liberated [from Daesh],” he said.
“But thanks to the Iraqi intelligence apparatus -- and coordination with Turkey -- he was ultimately found and arrested,” Bayrkdar added.
In February, the Turkish authorities arrested al-Ithawi, also known as Abu Zeid al-Iraqi, and handed him over to the Iraqi authorities.
Last year, officials in Baghdad declared that Daesh's military presence in Iraq had been all but destroyed following a three-year conflict with the army.
The notorious terrorist group, however, still appears to maintain a limited presence in several parts of the country.
Reporting by Amir al-Saadi; Writing by Mahmoud Barakat
