Belgium Opens 13 Cases Of Rape, Torture, Murder Of Yazidis By Belgium Nationals
Nearly 3000 Yazidi women and girls abducted by ISIS remain missing.
Prosecutors in Belgium have opened an investigation of Belgian nationals suspected of terrorist acts committed against Yazidis by the terrorist Islamic State organization in Iraq in 2014. Belgian Minister of Justice Paul Van Tigchelt stated that there are 13 open cases being pursued by his office.
Speaking on November 22, Van Tigchelt said, "These are long and complex procedures, with many requests for international legal assistance, which require travel by investigators and magistrates."
A team of five magistrates working in the prosecutor’s office handle cases that go beyond the borders of Belgium, including crimes committed by Belgian armed forces abroad, as well as corruption within the European Union.
The torture, rape, abduction and murder of Yazidis by ISIS terrorists is one of the darkest chapters in the history of the Middle East. Over the course of two weeks in August 2014, ISIS militants invaded Sinjar, a region in Iraq, seeking to eradicate Yazidis, who Islamic authorities regard as outside of their faith and thus subject to forced conversion or death. The marauders murdered thousands of Yazidi men, as well as elderly women. Children and younger women were subjected to rape, torture, crucifixion, and slavery.
Yazidis are a monotheistic minority group related to the Kurdish nation. They are found mostly in southeastern Turkey, northern Iraq and Syria, the Caucasus mountains, and in Iran.
Some 400,000 Yazidis were able to escape next door to Kurdistan, while tens of thousands fled to Mount Sinjar. Yazidis who could not escape were murdered or captured and enslaved. The latter were subjected to systematic rape, torture, and forced labor. In excess of 6,000 Yazidi women and children are abducted by the Muslim marauders. About 2,800 are still missing.
Belgium and The Netherlands joined forces in 2023 to jointly investigate crimes against Yazidis in Syria and Iraq.
In August, the De Morgen newspaper of Beklgium quoted activist Tanya Mehra about justice for the Yazidi genocide. "The facts are terrible, and there are Belgian perpetrators. Yet ten years after the genocide of Yazidis, not a single Belgian has been brought to justice. I think it is important to bring this out.”