NGO reveals the killed ISIS leader’s role in enslaving Yezidis
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – The killed ISIS leader Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi aka “Hajji Abdullah” was heavily involved in the slave trade of Yezidi women from Iraq, the Commission for International Justice and Accountability (CIJA) said in a statement on Thursday.
In an investigation that has been conducted sin 2015, the CIJA said their “investigations on the ground in Syria and Iraq showed his potential criminal responsibility for war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, and other offenses such as human trafficking.”
Today, the US President, Joe Biden, announced the killing of Abu Ibrahim al-Qurayshi, the leader of ISIS in Idlib, northwest Syria.
The CIJA reported that Abdullah served as ISIS’s senior judge and Sharia law official in Iraq from 2014, exercising religious authority over all ISIS activity across that country.
“Hajji Abdullah had enormous power to persecute and punish ISIS enemies as far back as 2014. Not only was he one of the key architects of the Islamic State slave trade in Yezidi women and children, he personally enslaved and raped captive women,” said Nerma Jelacic, Deputy Director of CIJA.
The CIJA statement added that Hajji Abdullah was responsible for all Yezidi prisoners held in Iraq after they had been captured during ISIS Sinjar military operation in August 2014.
“He oversaw the distribution of Yezidi women, together with young children, to ISIS members as sabaya (female spoils of war).”
It pointed out that he was also responsible for the massacre of hundreds of Yezidi men and boys.
The Commission for International Justice and Accountability (CIJA) is a non-profit, non-governmental organization dedicated to furthering criminal justice efforts through investigations, in order to prevent the loss and destruction of vital evidence for the purpose of supporting prosecutorial efforts to end impunity, whether at the domestic or international level.