ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Baghdad has initiated legal and diplomatic procedures to transfer around 6,000 foreign detainees and convicts associated with the Islamic State (ISIS) to their home countries, a spokesperson for Iraq’s justice ministry said on Sunday, excluding those serving death sentences.
"The ministry is in continuous coordination with the diplomatic missions of 61 Arab and foreign countries to activate agreements and sign memorandums of understanding to transfer the prisoners,” Murad al-Saadi told Rudaw’s Gashaw Khalid.
"The main objective of this step is to reduce the immense pressure on our prisons caused by overcrowding,” he added.
The efforts to transfer the prisoners come as Iraq struggles to pay its civil servants amid the regional conflict involving the US, Israel and Iran. The resulting closure of the Strait of Hormuz - through which most of Iraq’s oil exports passed before the war - has dealt a blow to the country’s economy.
In February, Iraq’s Supreme Judicial Council confirmed receiving 5,704 suspected ISIS members of 61 nationalities in a US-led transfer operation from Syria to Iraq. Of those, 983 held European, Australian or American citizenship.
Saadi said Syrian nationals top the list of inmates slated for repatriation, followed by prisoners from Morocco, Tunisia and Turkey. The list also includes American, Canadian and Russian citizens.
Karkh Central Prison in Baghdad has been designated as the main facility where the prisoners will be assembled before procedures for their transfer are completed.
Iraq relies on its 2005 anti-terrorism law to prosecute ISIS suspects. The legislation allows for the death penalty for membership in a terrorist organization.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) in February accused Iraqi authorities of conducting rushed trials of ISIS detainees, raising concerns over due process and saying some convictions were based on confessions allegedly obtained through torture.
According to the international watchdog, around 8,000 ISIS detainees are on death row.
