Nearly 5,000 ISIS prisoners transferred from Syria to Iraqi: Official

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Nearly 5,000 imprisoned ISIS militants have been transferred from Syria to Iraqi prisons as part of an ongoing process carried out by the US-led global coalition, an Iraqi official said Wednesday, with courts having begun legal proceedings against them.

“The transfer of terrorist prisoners from Syria to Iraq is ongoing in coordination with the global coalition, and they are being held in Iraqi prisons,” Sabah al-Numan, spokesperson for Iraq’s commander-in-chief of the armed forces, told Rudaw on Wednesday.

He added that Iraqi courts have begun taking legal and judicial measures "against those individuals who committed crimes against the Iraqi people.”

Data obtained by Rudaw from the Iraqi Joint Operations Command shows that, as of Wednesday, nearly 5,000 former ISIS members have been brought into Iraq. Numan said investigations and trials will continue “to ensure they receive their just punishment for what they have committed against Iraqis.”

Numan emphasized that victims have the right to seek justice, confirming that the door is open for Yazidis and all Iraqis to file complaints against these ISIS militants.

“All criminal and terrorist acts that were committed will be investigated," he said, pointing to a coordinated intelligence, judicial, and security effort by all security agencies "to ensure these individuals receive their just punishment."

The detainees are part of a larger group of roughly 7,000 ISIS suspects that the US military began transferring from Kurdish-held areas of Syria last month, following advances by Syrian government forces into areas previously controlled by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

In mid-January, the Syrian Arab Army and allied armed groups moved into several northeastern cities formerly under SDF control.

After weeks of clashes, the SDF and Damascus announced on January 29 that they had reached an internationally brokered agreement to end hostilities and integrate Rojava’s civil and military institutions, including the Kurdish-led forces, into state institutions.

Ali Dhia, assistant head of Iraq’s National Center for International Judicial Cooperation (NCIJC), an affiliate of the Iraqi Supreme Judicial Council, said on Monday that among the 7,000 to 8,000 ISIS prisoners being transferred to Iraq are “individuals who committed crimes against our Yazidi people, as well as those involved in crimes involving the use of chemical weapons in Iraq during the period of ISIS control.”

He said Iraq has launched preliminary investigations into those already transferred, noting that “preliminary investigations have revealed that a number of them are considered highly dangerous, are leaders within ISIS terrorist gangs, and are perpetrators of genocide and crimes against humanity and Iraqi components.”