An Iraqi court on Tuesday sentenced six French nationals to life in prison and a seventh to 15 years after convicting them of membership in ISIS, a Reuters witness inside the courtroom said.

Axar.az reports, citing the outlet, the men were among 47 French ISIS suspects transferred from detention facilities in northeast Syria to Iraq last year under a broader relocation arrangement coordinated by US forces and Iraqi authorities.

The presiding judge said the sentences were imposed under Iraq’s counterterrorism law for joining ISIS and spreading fear. He added that the court had opted for life imprisonment rather than the death penalty because the defendants were young.

A seventh French national, aged 23, was given a 15-year sentence, according to the Reuters witness.

Abbas al-Maliki, one of the lawyers for the defendants, said the group would appeal the sentence in the Court of Cassation.

Iraq opened the trial of the French nationals last month.