Former ISIS propaganda star Tarik Jadaoun was sentenced to death by hanging Tuesday by an Iraqi court after he was found guilty of terrorism and related charges.
Jadaoun, who went by the alias Abu Hamza al-Beljiki, was “among the most wanted foreign terrorists who fought in Syria and Iraq,” the Iraqi judiciary said in a statement, according to the AFP.
Jadaoun has ties to Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a terrorist who was among the organizers of the 2015 Paris attacks.
The court deliberated for less than 10 minutes before the verdict was handed down. Jadaoun, who was captured by allied forces in Mosul, defended himself by saying he “got lost.”
Previously, Jadaoun claimed to have been a leader of volunteer nurses, who had been captured by ISIS and was forced to appear in the propaganda videos against his will. “I took care of everybody,” he said at a previous hearing.
Jadaoun is one of about 300 former ISIS fighters who have been sentenced to death by Iraqi courts. About 100 of those are said to be foreigners. Another 185 foreigners who have been convicted of terrorism are serving life in prison, according to the AFP.
Jadaoun now has 30 days to appeal the verdict before the sentence of “hanged until death” is carried out.