Turkish ISIS detainees to face trial in Iraq before possible transfer home

BAGHDAD — Iraq’s Justice Ministry said Tuesday that Turkish nationals held on Islamic State charges will be prosecuted under Iraqi law and could later be transferred to Turkey under a bilateral agreement signed in the 1990s.

Ministry spokesperson Ahmed Laibi told the state news agency that Turkish detainees “will be tried according to Iraqi law,” with a joint committee from the Interior Ministry intelligence, the National Security Service and the Intelligence Service conducting investigations before rulings are issued by the Supreme Judicial Council.

“There is an agreement between Iraq and the Turkish side signed in the 1990s, and based on this agreement it is possible to transfer all Turkish inmates to Turkey, except those sentenced to death,” Laibi said.

Those sentenced to death will have their sentences carried out in Iraq, he said, while others will be transferred to Turkey to serve the remainder of their sentences under reciprocal agreements between the two countries.

Laibi said all prisoners previously held in Syria have now been transferred to Iraq, putting the total at 5,704 — one more than the 5,703 the ministry reported on Feb. 14, when it said detainees represented 61 nationalities. Among foreign nationals, the largest groups included Tunisians, Moroccans, Turks, Turkmen, Russians and Egyptians. The international coalition is covering the cost of detainees’ food.

On Monday, National Security Adviser Qasim al-Araji met German State Secretary at the Federal Foreign Office Dr. Géza Andreas von Geyr and called on countries to repatriate their nationals among the transferred detainees.