US moves 7,000 ISIS suspects from Syria to Iraq amid safety and due process concerns

Erbil, Iraq – The US military is in the process of transferring nearly 7,000 ISIS suspects from prisons and jails in the Northeast. Syria to detention facilities along the Iraqi border. The operation comes amid security concerns following a mass escape from at least one prison in Syria, but it is also raising concerns about the fate of detainees.

An Iraqi security source told CBS News that as of Thursday, nearly 2,000 detainees had been brought into the country.

Iraq has vowed to prosecute prisoners, and many could face terrorism charges in an opaque justice system that only seven years ago tried and sentenced suspected ISIS militants, including European citizens, to death.

In late January, Syria’s Ministry of Defense announced a 15-day extension to the ceasefire that ended clashes between government troops and Kurdish forces in the country’s northeast. The clashes sparked chaos around prisons holding ISIS detainees in the region controlled by the US-allied Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

Chaos had January 20 mass escape from a facility.

The Defense Ministry said the ceasefire extension is intended to allow the US-led military coalition to transfer ISIS suspects to Iraq.

Since the start of the US-led war against ISIS in 2014, the SDF has played a crucial role in defeating the terrorist group and forcing it to abandon its self-declared Islamic caliphate in 2019. ISIS, although it does not hold significant territory, is still a threat, and the SDF has continued to work to carry out a joint operation to prevent coalition forces from joining.

As a result of the initial offensive and ongoing operations, thousands of ISIS suspects were arrested in prisons and detention centers guarded by SDF and coalition troops in northeastern Syria.

But a deep lack of trust between the SDF and Syria’s new post-dictatorial government, which is also backed by the U.S., led to clashes that undermined security at prisons where ISIS is held – many of which hardened militants.

Uncertainty over the security of the detention facilities worried not only the SDF and its leaders in Damascus, but also neighboring countries and the US, and Washington agreed to relocate approximately 7,000 ISIS suspects to more secure detention facilities in Iraq.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed the plan, saying the prisoners would be “temporarily in Iraq” and called on the detainees’ home countries to repatriate their citizens.

In Iraq, officials wary of further mass exodus moved quickly to increase security along the Syrian border, providing secure facilities to hold transferred detainees.

“It’s better to be imprisoned and secured in Iraq than to worry about escapes and releases in Syria,” an Iraqi security source, who was not authorized to speak on the matter, told CBS News.

But while Rubio said ISIS suspects would only be held temporarily in Iraq, the government in Baghdad has gone further, saying it is ready to prosecute them.

Iraq says it can offer ISIS suspects “fair and conclusive trials.” Is it not possible?

Iraq’s top legal official, Supreme Judicial Council Chairman Dr. Faiq Zidan, said in a televised appearance on January 23 that his country was fully prepared to handle cases of ISIS suspects, both foreign and domestic.

“Although some countries refuse to receive citizens involved in terrorist crimes, the Iraqi justice system confirms its readiness to prosecute terrorists detained in camps on Syrian territory, in accordance with national laws and international obligations, ensuring fair and decisive trials, obtaining justice for victims of terrorism and preserving the security of Iraq and other countries,” said Zidane.

But Sarah Sanbar, a researcher at New York-based Human Rights Watch, questioned Iraq’s ability to conduct so many fair trials, telling CBS News that the last time the country’s courts brought such a large number of people to trial, “the system was completely overwhelmed.”

After the defeat of ISIS in Iraq in late 2017, the country put thousands of ISIS suspects on trial. According to the United Nations mission in Iraq, between January 2018 and October 2019, the Iraqi judiciary dealt with more than 20,000 cases related to terrorism.

Iraqi officials have not confirmed how many people convicted of terrorism offenses were sentenced to death during that period, but Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have said. About 8,000 people are on death row in the country, including non-Iraqi citizens.

Several news channels, including The The Wall Street JournalIn 2019, it was announced that seven French citizens were among hundreds of people sentenced to death. A CBS News crew attended one of the trials in Baghdad.

“It was a total sham trial,” Sanbar told CBS News. “Confessions obtained under torture, those who were tortured in detention centers, trials that lasted 10 minutes without a lawyer, where they were sentenced to death, based on an anonymous informant and without evidence.”

In response to questions emailed by CBS News, an official at the National Iraqi Justice Center and International Judicial Cooperation dismissed Sanbar’s allegations, saying that “Iraqi justice categorically rejects torture” and that “coercive confessions are a crime punishable under Iraqi law.”

“Terrorism trials in Iraq are carried out in accordance with existing laws and are carried out within a constitutional framework that guarantees the right to a fair trial, the right to defend the accused and the right to appeal the verdicts”, said the official of the center, adding that all these proceedings were “supervised by specialized judges working in the unusual situation imposed by the scale of the crimes and the unusual circumstances”.

Sandbar said Iraq’s justice system has come a “long way” since the 2019 trials, as the country itself has continued to stabilize, “but that said, many of these fundamental systemic problems still remain.”

He calls on Iraq and the US to say “who is there”.

“We don’t know who is there,” Sanbar told CBS News about the detainees the U.S. has taken to Iraq.

During a 2018 visit to a mass prison holding ISIS suspects in Hasakah, northeastern Syria, CBS News found that most were Iraqis or Syrians, but there were also Europeans, Asians, Turks and citizens of other Arab countries. There was also an American man, but CBS News later learned that he was repatriated.

So far, there is no third country that has brought Iraqi foreign nationals to Iraq or the possibility of being tried in the country. This comes as no surprise to Sanbar.

“We have seen these countries whose citizens went to join ISIS completely wash their hands of any responsibility. They have let them languish there for the last 10 years,” said Sanbar. “We would hope to take them home now, and we are calling them for that.”

Iraq’s National Center for Justice and International Judicial Cooperation told CBS News it was in contact with several countries on the matter, although it did not identify them.

when He spoke to CBS News Regarding the criticism of Iraqi Chief Justice Zaidan in 2019 for previous convictions and executions, including of seven French nationals, his position was clear: other countries should handle it themselves, or let Iraq do it Iraq’s way.

“My message to foreign governments,” Zaidan said: “Please respect the Iraqi court and Iraqi law. If you want our court to hold a trial for all fighters, you must respect our decision. You must respect our law. If you don’t accept what we are doing in our court, please take your detainee instead, take your suspect to your country and hold a trial.”