12 MPs save Genocide survivor from death sentence by judge with links to ISIS

In a surprising, though welcome multi-partisan display, 12 Canadian MPs called on the Iraqi Ambassador for a stay on the execution of Khaled Shamo Sarhan, 17. Premised on false accusations, Sarhan, a Yazidi boy, was sentenced to death on February 28th, 2020, for the killing of Faris Mohammed on August 3rd, 2017. He was some 300 kilometres from the scene of the crime that day.

Marking the third anniversary of the Yazidi Genocide, Mohammed was found smuggling Daesh (ISIS) fighters across the border. The organization has been complicit in the slaughter of nearly 7,000 and the displacement of 400,000 Yazidis to Northern Iraq. 

Approximately 3,000 abducted Yazidi women and children are missing, with fears looming over their fates. Daesh has been known to force women and girls into sex slavery while recruiting boys as fighters.

Activists like Nadia Morad, a former Yazidi captive, has delivered several impassioned speeches to the genocide, which has garnered little international attention outside of her efforts.

Sarhan, who has been imprisoned since October 6th, 2017, had his sentence withdrawn after the judge who initially sentenced Sarhan had links to al-Qaeda and Daesh. Judge Jamal Qaro ignored the photographic evidence and testimonies of seventy eyewitnesses, which brought the ruling under scrutiny. However, Qaro believed the testimony of Mohammed’s accomplice, Khuther Hissein, which drew the ire of MPs from three parties.

Now, Sarhan will be given a new trial with fair due process, under a different judge. The letter to the Iraqi Ambassador can be viewed here: