BAGHDAD (Dispatches) – A court in Iraq has sentenced more than a dozen Turkish women to death over membership in the Daesh terrorist group and involvement in acts of terror across the conflict-ridden Arab country.
A judicial official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Central Criminal Court sentenced 15 female Turkish citizens to death, while another Turkish woman was condemned to life imprisonment.
On February 22, Arabic-language al-Sumaria television network quoted Iraq’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Ahmed Mahjoub as saying that Iraqi authorities had extradited four women and 27 children from the families of Daesh terrorists to Russian officials.
"There was no proof that those extradited had been involved in terrorist operations against Iraqi civilians or security forces,” Mahjoub said, adding, "They will be prosecuted in Russia for illegally entering Iraq.”
Iraq’s Arabic-language al-Mashriq newspaper has reported that more than 1,500 women and children from the families of Daesh terrorists are currently being held in the country, and that the Baghdad government is coordinating with their respective countries to decide their fate.
Meanwhile, Iraq has rejected a request from Riyadh to hand over more than 400 Saudi Arabians, whom it has imprisoned on terrorism charges.
According to the London-based newspaper Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, the Saudis were captured along with "hundreds” of other Arabs and Europeans in the fight against Daesh and al-Qaeda.
The paper cited government spokesman Saad al-Hadithi as saying that Baghdad would allow the extradition of those foreigners who have been acquitted of terror charges. Iraq says all foreign prisoners fall under the jurisdiction of the country’s legal system. 
Riyadh made the extradition request after pledging $1.5 billion during a donors’ conference held in Kuwait to Iraq’s post-Daesh reconstruction.
Daesh follows the radical ideology of Wahhabism, which dominates Saudi Arabia. It views people of other faiths and creeds as "infidels” punishable by death.
The outfit unleashed its campaign of bloodshed and destruction on Iraq and neighboring Syria in 2014, overrunning large swathes of territory. At the time, extremists from Britain, France and Germany as well as from elsewhere across Europe joined the group to establish a Takfiri caliphate.
As their exodus began, many European leaders ignored repeated warnings that hardened militants could return home one day and hit back, simply because they wanted to see the back of the Syrian government.