ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Kurdish administration in northeast Syria (Rojava) does not have the capacity to prosecute Islamic State (ISIS) prisoners detained in the administration’s prisons because it is not a state, a lawyer representing a number of the militants told Rudaw on Tuesday.
Kamal Akef, the Kurdish administration’s foreign affairs spokesperson, told North Press Agency (NPA) on Monday that they were preparing to conduct trials for a number of ISIS members detained in Rojava’s prisons, without specifying the date of these trials or the nationality of the militants.
"I am aware of the efforts made by the Rojava authorities to provide legal and judicial requirements to guarantee the freedom and rights of prisoners. But the current obstacle is that Rojava is not a state today, and it is not part of the international community,” Etienne Mangeot, a French lawyer representing a number of the ISIS militants told Rudaw’s Hussein Omar on Tuesday.
“So it cannot provide guarantees of respect for rights and freedom in a legitimate way,” he added.
The French lawyer added that he does not expect his country to use the Kurdish administration as a contractor in the judicial process of French citizens imprisoned in Rojava, when it has the complete legal capacity to try them itself.
The Rojava administration has been attempting to try ISIS prisoners for years, but the process has been hindered by obstacles posed by international law.
Hassan al-Ahmad, co-chair of the Kurdish administration’s social justice council, said in July that the mechanism to try ISIS members “is still under discussion between the administration and the global coalition.”
There are over 10,000 ISIS prisoners from more than 50 different nationalities in Rojava, and ISIS-affiliated families make up the majority of the population of the notorious al-Hol camp which consists of about 56,000 people.
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