The Paris Assize Court in Paris, France, has awarded damages to three Ezidi women and their eight children in the case against French ISIS member Sabri Essid. The Free Ezidi Foundation announced the compensation decision on 21 September 2026, followed by statements from FIDH and the French Human Rights League on 22 September.
The ruling concerns the survivors’ civil claims for harm caused by Essid’s crimes. It follows his conviction on 20 March 2026, when the same court sentenced him in absentia to life imprisonment for genocide, crimes against humanity and complicity in those crimes, committed in Syria between August 2014 and 2016.
Announced by the civil-party organisations in statements published on 21 and 22 September, the latest decision recognises the lasting harm suffered by the women and children. The court awarded damages for injuries including the fear of imminent death, the loss of affection and moral harm. The amounts awarded to the individual survivors were not disclosed.
For the survivors, however, securing a financial award has not provided a means of collecting it. Essid was tried in his absence after reports of his death in Syria could not be confirmed. He remains unlocated, and the organisations say compensation cannot currently be recovered from him.
They also say the survivors are excluded from France’s crime-victim compensation mechanism, the Commission d’indemnisation des victimes d’infractions, known as CIVI. Under the current legal framework, foreign victims of international crimes committed abroad cannot obtain compensation through that mechanism, according to the organisations.
“There can be no meaningful justice without effective reparation,” the five organisations said in their joint statement. They warned that the awards would remain largely symbolic while foreign victims lacked access to compensation when a convicted perpetrator could not be found or could not pay.
The organisations involved are Kinyat, the Free Ezidi Foundation, Yazda, the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the French Human Rights League (LDH). All five joined the proceedings as civil parties. The court also recognised the moral harm they had suffered and awarded symbolic damages of one euro, separately from the compensation granted to the women and children.
Essid, also known as Abou Dojanah al-Faransi, was convicted both for his own actions and for complicity in crimes committed by others. The March judgment established his responsibility for serious bodily or mental harm constituting genocide, as well as enslavement, imprisonment, torture, rape, persecution and other inhuman acts constituting crimes against humanity. His complicity conviction also covered his involvement in the transfer of an enslaved woman and her children in 2015.
FIDH described the judgment as the first conviction of a French national for genocide and the first French court ruling on ISIS atrocities against Ezidis.
The case was built over several years through investigations and testimony from survivors of the Ezidi Genocide of 2014. French prosecutors opened a broader preliminary investigation into ISIS crimes against Ezidis and other targeted groups in December 2016. The following year, FIDH and Kinyat travelled to Iraq to document sexual and gender-based crimes and collect evidence concerning foreign ISIS members.
Survivors’ accounts and information supplied by the organisations helped investigators identify Essid. A judicial investigation was opened in 2019, and investigating judges ordered him to stand trial on 8 October 2024. The criminal trial took place in Paris from 16 to 20 March 2026, ending with his conviction and life sentence.
