Iraq offers to try foreign jihadists for cash
Hundreds of Isil suspects could be transferred to courts in Baghdad for a price of £1.5m per head
‘Iraq proposed setting up a special tribunal ... there’s been a constructive beginning to discussions’
IRAQ is willing to put on trial hundreds of suspected foreign jihadists who are being held in Syria, in return for millions of pounds, according to reports.
Iraqi officials made the proposal to the Us-led coalition last week, offering to try the detainees in Baghdad for $2million (£1.5 million) per head per year, sources told AFP.
One source said the calculation was based on the estimated costs the US would face for holding a detainee in a prison such as Guantánamo Bay.
“We made the proposal last week but have not gotten a response yet,” said an Iraqi source, speaking anonymously as he was not authorised to give details to the press. “These countries have a problem; here’s a solution.”
Around 1,000 suspected foreign fighters for Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) are in detention centres in northeast Syria run by the Us-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). In addition, about 9,000 foreign women and children are living in camps.
The Daily Telegraph understands there are at least 26 British men and women and around 30 children.
The Kurdish-led forces say they do not have the resources to hold them indefinitely and officials have warned that fighters might escape if the SDF is forced to divert its troops to face an offensive by neighbouring Turkey.
The majority of the 52 countries that have nationals with suspected links to Isil are refusing to repatriate them.
“Iraq proposed to the coalition setting up a special tribunal ... there’s been a constructive beginning to those discussions,” a second source told AFP.
But setting up the court could be complicated, the official said, with questions over whether international funding for it would preclude any implementation of the death penalty.
Iraq has already tried hundreds of foreign Isil suspects captured within its borders.
A small number of foreigners have been handed over by the SDF to Iraq for trial. They include one German, at least 12 French nationals who were transferred from Syria in February and one Lebanese fighter.
The Iraqi government has also agreed to take back about 20,000 of its own nationals caught by the SDF. The Telegraph has attended cases in Baghdad’s central criminal court, where some foreign suspects were sentenced to death after 10-minute trials.
Human Rights Watch has said the record of previous Isil trials in Iraq showed that the transfers might violate international law, as detainees risk torture and forced confessions.
The UK fears it will not be able to mount successful prosecutions against returning jihadists. However, any decision to allow the trials of British suspects in Iraq would mean dropping its objection to the death penalty.