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).