QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – The Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) has been calling for ISIS “criminals” to be tried by an international court, however, we have not received any positive response from the international community, said Badran Chiya Kurd, co-chair of the AANES’ Foreign Relations Department on Thursday.
“We have been met by silence,” he said. “It has been five years that these people [ISIS members] have been kept here. To keep them so many years without a trial is not legal and does not fit with international standards.”
Chiya Kurd’s speech came during a panel held by the Kurdish Center for Studies, an independent non-partisan research center based in Germany, on the trial of ISIS members in northeast Syria where he took part via Zoom.
He did not mention any specific date for the trials “due to security concerns,” adding “When it is decided, we will share it publically. Previous statements saying that trials would start this week were a mistake.”
The AANES official added that ISIS members remain a danger for the region and the entire world. “We cannot keep them anymore. Evidently, ISIS is reorganizing and becoming stronger day by day.”
ISIS suspects held in pre-trial detention have so far staged several break-out attempts. The most severe was carried out in late January 2022, when ISIS cells attacked the al-Sinaa prison compound in the city of Hasakah, which held several thousand male ISIS suspects, and briefly took control of the south of the city. 121 security forces were killed as they reined in the escapees over a bloody, ten-day battle.
On June 10, the AANES announced that it would begin the trial of foreign ISIS militants held in AANES’ prisons in line with international and local terrorism laws.
The AANES explained that their decision was made due to the international community’s failure to respond to its calls with regard to the repatriation of foreign ISIS members, as well as to uphold justice and provide social justice for the victims.
Chiya Kurd stressed that the trial is important for the rights of the victims and the rights of “13,000 martyrs and thousands of veterans.”
“The struggle against terror is not only carried out militarily, justice and establishing the facts of these crimes against humanity is also part of this struggle. The fight against terrorism has been kept at a military level, but social, judiciary, political, and security aspects are also important, we need to extend the struggle.” He confirmed.
Since March 2019, when the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) liberated the town of al-Baghouz, the last ISIS stronghold in Deir ez-Zor Governorate in eastern Syria, the AANES has been calling on the international community to take responsibility for finding solutions for the detained ISIS militants. It has proposed initiatives to establish an international court or one with an international mandate.
The issue of foreign ISIS militants constitutes a major burden and challenge for the AANES, as their continued detention without trial violates the international law. Furthermore, the security situation is increasingly precarious due to their continued presence, in addition to the presence of the tens of thousands of their family members, mostly women and children, living in camps of North and East Syria.
The official noted to many parties that would like to keep this region under a constant threat, and that they want to keep the situation as it is, citing constant Turkish attacks against the SDF and civilians in North and East Syria, as well as AANES officials. “The aim is to destabilize the region, they want the chaos to continue,” he said. “This is an approach we have also seen from the [Syria] regime. As a result we see the empowerment of terror. It’s also a reason for people to flee and seek asylum elsewhere.”
After the fall of al-Baghouz, the last sliver of ISIS’ so-called caliphate which once spanned across large swathes of Syria and Iraq, in 2019, the AANES had to contend with nearly 100,000 ISIS suspects and their families. Today, that number is still as high as 67,000. Around 13,000 of these are neither Syrian nor Iraqi citizens.
Almost as long as it began pushing back ISIS, the AANES has worked on establishing a robust counter-terrorism legislation and a judicial system to go with it. Two courts – the so-called People’s Defense Courts – were established under the AANES Justice Council in order to try terrorism offences. One is located in Qamishli, the other in Kobani. According to Sipan Ahmad (name changed), a judge in the Qamishli branch interviewed by Rojava Information Center (RIC), they have tried over 8,000 Syrians since 2014. ISIS members are thought to be only a fraction of that figure, however, as the People’s Defense Courts also prosecute Turkish-backed militiamen, al-Nusra Front members, as well as spies for Turkey, the Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraq, and the government in Damascus.
Badran Chiya Kurd said they are open to any cooperation to hold the trials, “especially the Global Coalition, our partners in the fight against terror. We are expecting them to support us in these trials.”
As for women, the official said, “Women are sometimes considered to be the victims of ISIS, but that is not true. There is a lot of evidence that they participated in crimes. But we do not have much evidence to charge them. Only a few.”
“Does not matter if men or women, as long as we have evidence of crimes, they will be tried and punished. The law applies to everyone. But there might not be that much concrete evidence against women. For women in the camps, there will also be trials for their crimes committed within the camps, that we can prove.”
Answering a question by our reporte, Sasha Hoffman, about the size of People’s Defense Courts, Chiya Kurd said that the People’s Defense Courts are entitled to try terror organizations, they started in 2021, confirming “People tried in these courts are Syrian nationals. The trials we are talking about will be conducted by a special court, composed of specialized prosecutors and a group of judges, as well as specialized units of investigation. The judges have years of experienced. They are appointed by the chamber of justice, an organization which assigns judges and prosecutors to trials. They will decide.”
He added that more than 8,000 Syrian members of ISIS have been tried since 2014, “the great majority were convicted and a few were found innocent, who were released. Some are still being tried.”
“Our judiciary is organized according to existing legislation. The trials will all be organized under the structure of the existing [AANES] justice system.”
Badran Chiya Kurd stated that they would be open to share evidence with other countries.
“There is no cooperation between the AANES and the regime in Damascus,” he concluded.