More than 10,000 Islamic militants are being held in makeshift prisons. Credit: FADEL SENNA/AFP via Getty Images
Trials of thousands of foreigners ISIS fighters held in Syria must be on the job within “a few days,” local officials said, attacking their partners for that they did not help repatriate the terrorists.
The Kurdish administration in northeast Syria has been responsible for holding off the terrorist group since they destroyed the so-called caliphate, The Telegraph told The Telegraph that the prosecution would begin this week.
This came as they accused the international community, part of which armed and supported them in the fight against the Islamic State, for being slow to bring the militants to justice. , the Kurdish authorities have also warned that the security situation in prisons is deteriorating.
The lawsuits were unexpectedly announced by the US-backed Autonomous Administration of the Americas. East Syria (AANES), not controlled by Damascus, on Saturday.
This statement left Western diplomats by surprise and did not seem to be discussed with Washington, their main patron. US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken just two days earlier urged countries to repatriate their citizens and not “burden” affected countries with them.
Western diplomats said the lawsuits were not discussed on the sidelines of the IS coalition summit in Saudi Arabia.
The authorities blamed the “failure of the international community” for not responding to their decades-long calls for the repatriation of foreign fighters or for an international tribunal to bring them to justice.
It is estimated that about a dozen Britons and former Britons suspected of involvement in the Islamic state, are in prisons in northeastern Syria, and nearly 50 IS-affiliated women and innocent children are in squalid camps. Among them, Shamima Begum, deprived of citizenship.
Shamima Begum stripped of her British citizenship. Photo: Sam Tarling.
An AANES spokesman told The Telegraph that only prisoners will face trial while they try to find a solution for the camps.
It's not immediately clear what criteria the authorities set for those who stand trial. The guards have been known to round up male children from the camps and send them to adult prisons when they reach adolescence.
Analysts, as well as the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) militia, who have warned in the camps for years that the fragile situation is a ticking time bomb for an IS resurgence. Public trials could be the right moment for another jailbreak.
Authorities have said the trials will be “open, free and transparent,” but human rights groups have raised concerns about whether they will uphold due process of law. procedure in reality.
Islamic State fighters, their wives and children from over 60 countries have been captured by the SDF while fighting the terrorist group. More than 10,000 fighters, including 2,000 foreigners, have been held in makeshift prisons since the ISIS territorial defeat in 2019. About 50,000 women and innocent children are in camps teeming with extremism.
“There are only a small number of Britons in these prisons, but it's impossible to know how many because they are being held incommunicado,” said Katherine Cornette, head of the British campaigning team Reprieve in Northeast Syria. “They are in a legal black hole, which makes it very difficult to understand how fair trials can take place. The only real way to ensure justice is to repatriate them and try them in British courts where there are grounds for a response.”
Western diplomats working on a difficult issue told The Telegraph that the announcement took them by surprise and they are urgently trying to contact AANES.
A spokesman said the lawsuits are expected to begin in the coming days . According to him, the court will be open to human rights organizations, journalists and members of the public. Lawyers will be provided and paid by the administration, but he did not specify whether the defendants will be able to bring their lawyers.
The cases that will be brought against the first defendants are now being prepared.
Repatriation has been slow, especially for the male fighters in prison, but four years after the territorial defeat, Britain is the only major Western power still taking a hard line not to bring them home for trial. This year, Canada was forced to repatriate British-born “Jihadist Jack” after the British government stripped him of his citizenship. The US has also taken high-profile British detainees Alexandra Kotey and El Shafi Elsheikh.
AANES statement calls on the international community to help ease trials.
“The US-led coalition against ISIS, the UN and the country The origins of the detainees must support fair trials in northeast Syria, in their home countries or in a third country. Anything less is not only a violation of these detainees' right to due process. It is also unfair to ISIS victims,” tweeted Letta Tyler, counterterrorism expert at Human Rights Watch.
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