Aide to ISIS chief sentenced to hang

Cooperation fails to sway Iraqi court

BAGHDAD — A top aide to the leader of the Islamic State group was sentenced Wednesday to death by hanging by an Iraqi court, becoming the highest-ranking member of the extremist group to be tried and punished in a court of law.

Ismail al-Ithawi was part of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s inner circle and was responsible for religious edicts, finances and designing the educational curriculum for the Islamic State’s once-vast area of control across Iraq and Syria. He is also thought to be the group’s only operative in custody to have seen al-Baghdadi alive last year.

Ithawi, who used the alias Abu Zaid al-Iraqi, was captured in a joint operation by Iraqi, American and Turkish intelligence agencies in February and had been providing information to Iraqi authorities, including coordinates for airstrikes on targets in Syria, Iraqi officials said.

His capture, along with that of four other important figures he helped authorities track down, was touted by President Donald Trump in a tweet in May, and experts believed he could help authorities track down al-Baghdadi. Last month, al-Baghdadi released an audiotape, apparently intending to prove he is still alive.

Al-Ithawi is the most prominent member of the Islamic State group to have faced trial in Iraq. He is one of more than 300 Iraqis and foreigners, including women, to have been given death sentences.

It was not clear why al-Ithawi was given a death sentence despite his cooperation with authorities.

An Iraqi judge with knowledge of al-Ithawi’s trial, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss legal deliberations, said al-Ithawi’s cooperation had indeed helped authorities track down other Islamic State figures. But under Iraq’s antiterrorism law, cooperation does not guarantee immunity from prosecution or from a maximum sentence, the judge said.

“If we arrest Baghdadi, no matter how much he cooperates, he will get the death sentence,” the judge said in an interview. “This is the least we can do for the victims of the Islamic State.”

The judge added that al-Ithawi had been represented by a public defender but declined to say how long the proceedings took.

Human-rights groups have criticized Iraq’s antiterrorism law as giving prosecutors too wide a berth. Scores of people who were coerced into helping the Islamic State, working as cooks, cleaners or doctors for the group, have faced trial and have been sentenced to life in prison or to death.

Terrorism trials in Iraq typically last mere minutes, with judges handing down harsh sentences based on coerced confessions. Defense attorneys have complained that they are often not given any opportunity to mount a defense.

Over the course of several days late last year, The Washington Post observed numerous trials of foreigners accused of joining the Islamic State that lasted less than 20 minutes before those defendants were sentenced to death.

AP/KARIM KADIM Shiite pilgrims lash themselves Wednesday after covering themselves with mud as a sign of grief for Imam Hussein during the Muslim month of Musharram in Karbala, south of Baghdad, Iraq.