Iraq receives former ISIS supporters from 42 nations

Citizens of 42 countries are among former Islamic State (ISIS) supporters and fighters transferred from Syrian prisons to Iraq.

No legal proceedings were conducted against these individuals in Syria, and investigations into their crimes are expected to continue in Iraq for four to six months, Caliber.Az reports via Iraqi media.

Potential charges against the militants include “use of chemical weapons” and “genocide.” Extradition requests to their countries of origin cannot be considered until the investigative process in Iraq is completed.

After the territorial defeat of the so‑called Islamic State in 2019, tens of thousands of foreign fighters and their family members from many countries were captured by the U.S.‑backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and held in camps and prisons in northeast Syria, with few repatriated due to legal and security concerns.

Most governments have been reluctant to bring back their citizens linked to ISIS, fearing political backlash and security risks at home, leaving a large population of foreign detainees in limbo under Syrian Kurdish control.

The United States and Iraq have coordinated transfers of some detained fighters from SDF custody to Iraq, where Iraqi authorities intend to prosecute them under Iraqi counterterrorism law.

Because of complex international legal issues and the lack of repatriation by countries of origin, prison populations include individuals from Europe, Asia, Africa and the Middle East, reflecting ISIS’s recruitment of foreign fighters during its peak.

By Jeyhun Aghazada