Brussels – Baghdad: Europe and the Arabs

The Iraqi judiciary will soon try 5,704 prisoners belonging to the Islamic State (ISIS)—nine of whom are from Belgium—who face the death penalty. Under this headline, Belgian media outlets in Brussels—including the newspaper *Het Nieuwsblad*—reported on Monday that the Iraqi Ministry of Justice had announced earlier this month plans to try 5,704 members of the Islamic State (IS) organization. All of them had been transferred from Syria to Iraq during the first months of this year. Nine of these individuals are Belgian nationals or were residing in Belgium when they departed for Syria from 2011 onwards. This was confirmed by Justice Minister Annelies Verlinden (CD&V party) and the counter-terrorism agency (OCAD). The identities of the nine men have not been disclosed.
Earlier this year, the United States transferred approximately 6,000 IS prisoners from Syria to Iraq in response to the situation in eastern Syria. At that time, the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad (born Ahmad al-Sharaa) was pushing out Kurdish fighters from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). This development had repercussions for thousands of male IS prisoners held in Syria—individuals who had been guarded by the SDF for years. Fearing they might escape, the United States arranged for their transfer to Iraq.
According to Iraqi authorities, the 5,704 suspects currently detained in Iraq hail from 67 different countries, including 19 European Union member states. Iraqi authorities indicate that the group includes 3,497 Syrians and 474 Iraqis. The remainder had traveled to Syria after 2011 to fight against the regime of Bashar al-Assad, with the vast majority joining the Islamic State (ISIS). Following the organization's defeat in 2019, thousands of them were held in Syrian prisons.
According to the Iraqi judicial system, it has been... The 5,704 transferred ISIS prisoners have been interrogated, and evidence against them has been gathered. They are expected to appear in court soon, in batches. In Iraq, anyone convicted of terrorism faces the death penalty—a sentence that is actually carried out. Hundreds of Iraqi ISIS fighters have previously been sentenced to death. However, in the case of several suspected ISIS members from France who were convicted in Iraq in 2019, their death sentences were commuted to life imprisonment.
ISIS fighters are interrogated immediately upon their arrival at Karkh Prison.
ISIS fighters are interrogated immediately upon their arrival at Karkh Prison. © Hadi Mizban/Associated Press
In recent years, our country has repatriated a number of ISIS women and their children. Regarding the men in Syria, Belgium’s stance has consistently been to prevent their return, with the aim of ensuring they are tried within Syria. Yet, that never happened—until now. The question arises: what will our country do if these nine individuals are sentenced to death in Iraq? The government offered no response to this question over the weekend. 500 Syrian-bound fighters
Following the outbreak of conflict in Syria and Iraq, approximately 500 men, women, and children left our country for the region to join terrorist organizations, most notably ISIS. Statistics from the Coordination Unit for Threat Analysis (OCAD) indicate that around 200 of them returned to Europe in the years that followed.
According to the latest figures, 150 Belgian "foreign terrorist fighters" (FTFs)—comprising both men and women—remain in the jihadist conflict zones of Syria and Iraq. It is believed that 54 of them have died, while... It is possible that another 96 individuals are still alive: 12 are in prisons in Iraq (nine of whom were recently transferred from Syria), four men remain in prisons in Syria, and seven women remain in camps in Syria (along with nine children). Little is known about the whereabouts of approximately 70 others; it is likely that some of them have also died, while the rest remain in Syria.