Iraq prepares trials for 5K ISIS detainees transferred from Syria
Shafaq News- Baghdad
Iraq is holding about 5,000 ISIS detainees transferred from Syria in high-security facilities, with authorities preparing new investigations before any redistribution to provincial prisons, informed sources told Shafaq News on Wednesday.
“The detainees, many of them Turkish nationals, are being kept in fortified locations under strict surveillance, with layered security and thermal monitoring,” the sources indicated, noting that they have not been moved to local prisons, as judicial authorities plan to reopen case files and initiate proceedings under Iraqi law before issuing verdicts.
The case files have been organized in preparation for formal investigations and trials. Initial steps are complete to facilitate interrogations and allow any future sentences to be served in the prisoners’ home countries if their governments formally request transfers.
The US Central Command (CENTCOM) began transferring detainees of various nationalities —including Iraqis, Syrians, Chechens, Afghans, Europeans, Egyptians, Sudanese, and Somalis— from Syria to prisons under Iraqi authority as part of a broader plan covering nearly 7,000 inmates. Earlier this week, Head of Iraq’s Security Media Cell Saad Maan told Shafaq News that Iraq had received 4,583 ISIS detainees.
