Alwaght- An Iraqi court sentenced 19 Russian women to life in prison for joining ISIS terrorist group in the country.
Baghdad Central Criminal Court ruling determined on Sunday the Russian women were guilty of "joining and supporting" ISIS.
The women, many accompanied by their children, addressed the court through a translator - a Russian -language professor at Baghdad University hired by the Russian embassy.
A Russian diplomat at the hearing said the families of the women will be contacted and "informed of the verdict".
Another six women from Republic of Azerbaijan and four from Tajikistan were also given life sentences.
Most of the women on trial claimed to have been misled into making the trip to Iraq.
"I did not know we were in Iraq … I went with my husband and my children to Turkey to live there and then I suddenly discovered I was actually in Iraq," one of the accused said on Sunday.
ISIS militants surprised Iraqi forces with a lightning-quick offensive in 2014 and captured about one-third of the country, including the Arab country's second-largest city Mosul, among others.
Since declaring victory over ISIS in late 2017, Iraqi authorities have arrested more than 560 women and 600 children identified as either as members of the group or relatives of militants.
Earlier this month, an Iraqi court sentenced French national Djamila Boutoutaou to life imprisonment for joining the terrorist group.
On April 2, the Central Criminal Court sentenced six Turkish women to death and handed down a life term to another.
In January, Iraqi judicial officials sentenced a German citizen of Moroccan origin to death by hanging in accordance with Anti-Terrorism Law.
Experts estimate Iraq has detained more than 20,000 people over suspected ties to the group and has sentenced more than 300 people to death so far. Twelve ISIS widows were given the death penalty in February.
Iraq's anti-terrorism laws empower courts to convict people who are believed to have helped ISIS, even if they were not directly involved in fighting.
