**French Court Sentences Jihadist to Life for Islamic State Crimes Against Yazidis** In a landmark case, the Paris Assizes Court has found Sabri Essid guilty in absentia of genocide, crimes against humanity, and complicity in the crimes committed by the Islamic State group against Iraq's Yazidi minority. The verdict, handed down on Friday, marks the first time a French court has tackled the issue of Islamic State's atrocities against the Yazidis. The court found that Essid, a Frenchman born in 1984, was involved in the genocide perpetrated by the Islamic State between 2014 and 2016. The group, which occupied large swaths of northern Syria and Iraq, specifically targeted the Yazidi minority for their religious beliefs. The Islamic State regarded the Yazidis, who follow a pre-Islamic faith, as heretics. According to the court, Essid became part of the criminal network that repeatedly bought and resold a large number of Yazidi victims. He is accused of buying several Yazidi women at markets and repeatedly raping them, as well as depriving them of water and food. The women were sold as sex slaves and abused by jihadists from around the world. In August 2014, the Islamic State murdered thousands of Yazidi men in Iraq's Sinjar province and took thousands of women and girls to Syria to sell them in markets. United Nations investigators have qualified these actions as genocide. The trial of Essid is seen as a significant step towards shedding light on the atrocities committed by the Islamic State. A Yazidi woman who was sold as a sex slave by the Islamic State described the horrors she endured under jihadist captivity in Syria. She was raped almost daily by her first two owners and resold to six other men before escaping with her daughter. The woman's testimony was heard in court on Thursday. Essid, who was thought to be close to the Clain brothers, was presumed to have been killed in 2018. However, without proof of his death, he was tried and convicted in absentia. Lawyers had stressed the significance of the trial, citing the importance of shedding light on the atrocities committed by the Islamic State.