ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – An Iraqi court sentenced six French nationals to life imprisonment and another one to 15 years after convicting them of being Islamic State (ISIS) members, the judiciary said Tuesday.

The individuals were among 47 suspects handed over to Iraq by Syria last year, the judiciary’s media office said in a statement, adding that the proceedings took place proceedings “in the presence of their legal counsel and representatives from the French Embassy in Iraq.”

“The convicted individuals are classified as ‘highly dangerous’ due to their role in threatening Iraq’s national security, destabilizing Iraq and Syria, and inciting terrorist operations in other countries,” the statement added.

Iraq’s judiciary in September announced it had completed interrogating over 5,700 ISIS prisoners that were transferred from Syria during the January clashes between Kurdish-led forces in northeast Syria (Rojava) and Damascus.

The interrogations found that the detainees include people from 67 nationalities, including 19 European countries, 16 Arab countries, and 32 other foreign nationalities.

Baghdad has repeatedly called on international countries to repatriate their nationals who are detained in Iraqi prisons over ISIS-affiliation charges.

ISIS took control of swathes of Syrian and Iraqi territory in 2014, announcing their self-proclaimed caliphate with the city of Mosul as its capital. They were territorially defeated with assistance from the US-led coalition forces in Iraq by 2017 and in Syria by 2019.

Despite its territorial defeat, the group continued to pose a threat to Iraq’s national security through sporadic hit-and-run operations.