Iraqi court sentences six French nationals to life, one to 15 years for ISIS membership

An Iraqi court has sentenced six French nationals to life imprisonment and a seventh to 15 years for belonging to the Islamic State group.

• Baghdad's Karkh Criminal Court issued the verdicts Tuesday under Iraq's anti-terrorism law against seven French citizens of Algerian origin.
• Judge Mohammad Salman said the court chose life imprisonment over the death penalty because the defendants are young.
• The sentences are the first issued among 47 French nationals transferred from Syria to Iraq last year, whose trials began last month.
• The US announced in January it had begun moving ISIS detainees from Syria to Iraq over facility security concerns in the northeast.