Probe of ISIS crimes in Iraq to start in early 2019

Members of the Yazidi minority in February 2015 searching for clues that might lead them to missing relatives. More than 200 mass graves containing up to 12,000 bodies have been recently discovered in Iraq, providing evidence of war crimes by ISIS.


The UN Security Council adopted a resolution in September last year to bring those responsible for Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) war crimes to justice - a cause championed by Nobel Peace Prize winner Nadia Murad and international human rights lawyer Amal Clooney.

The team, led by British lawyer Karim Asad Ahmad Khan, was deployed to Baghdad in October, but has since focused on administrative and technical details to lay the groundwork for the probe.

The investigative team now looks forward to continuing preparations in Iraq with a view to commencing investigative activities in early 2019," Mr Ahmad Khan told the council during his first report.

The Iraqi government had resisted calls for the UN probe and the head of the investigative team stressed that much effort had been deployed to ensure cooperation from Baghdad.