Free Yezidi Foundation founder Pari Ibrahim has highlighted the growing role of European courts in prosecuting crimes committed against Ezidis during the 2014 genocide, as more than 2,500 Ezidis remain missing twelve years later.
Twelve years after IS launched its genocidal campaign against the Ezidi people, prosecutions in European courts continue to demonstrate that perpetrators of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes can still be pursued far beyond the places where those crimes were committed.
Speaking on a recent episode of the Timeline programme with journalists Abdülhamit Bilici and Jesse Waters, Free Yezidi Foundation founder and executive director Pari Ibrahim discussed European prosecutions, the role of Ezidi organisations in gathering evidence and the continuing search for more than 2,500 missing Ezidis.
A central subject was universal jurisdiction, a legal principle that allows national authorities, under conditions established by their domestic laws, to investigate and prosecute certain serious international crimes committed outside their territory.
European courts have already produced several important judgments concerning crimes committed against Ezidis.
In Sweden, Lina Ishaq was sentenced to twelve years in prison in February 2025 for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes committed against nine Ezidi victims, including children. The Svea Court of Appeal upheld the sentence in November 2025. Eurojust described the judgment as the first conviction for genocide through the transfer of children, and said cooperation between authorities in Sweden, France, Belgium and the Netherlands had been crucial to the investigation.
France followed with another significant case in March 2026. French IS member Sabri Essid was convicted in absentia of genocide and crimes against humanity and sentenced to life imprisonment. The case was the first French trial concerning the genocide committed against the Ezidi people. Free Yezidi Foundation, Yazda and Kinyat participated as civil parties alongside survivors and other human rights organisations.
The Netherlands has also prosecuted crimes against Ezidis. In December 2024, a Dutch citizen was sentenced to ten years in prison for crimes against humanity involving the enslavement of an Ezidi woman, alongside terrorism-related offences.
Germany has played a particularly important role in establishing legal accountability for the genocide. German courts have issued a series of convictions relating to IS crimes against Ezidis, including the 2021 judgment against Taha Al-Jumailly, which became the first criminal judgment worldwide to recognise IS crimes against Ezidis as genocide.
Ibrahim also discussed the work carried out behind these prosecutions. Ezidi organisations have helped authorities by collecting survivor testimony, documenting alleged perpetrators and sharing information with law-enforcement bodies and prosecutors. Such cooperation has become increasingly important as investigations span several countries and concern crimes committed more than a decade ago.
Yet the legal progress contrasts sharply with the continuing consequences of the genocide.
More than 2,500 Ezidis remain missing, according to the Free Yezidi Foundation. Families continue searching for relatives abducted by IS, while many survivors remain displaced twelve years after the attacks.
The European cases therefore concern more than individual convictions. They demonstrate that time and borders do not necessarily prevent accountability for international crimes, while also preserving judicial records of what was done to the Ezidi people.
For survivors and families still waiting for answers, however, the process remains far from complete.
