Gabrielle: International court must be set up to prosecute IS

AHMED MOHAMMED –DIYAR AHMO/NEWS DESK

Hawar news agency (ANHA) held interview with the spokesman of the Syrian Democratic Forces on the fate of IS gangs elements  who have been arrested by virtue of SDF fighters during their military campaigns in the north and east of Syria who are currently existing at SDF’s hands, and how to deal with them.

More than 700 foreign mercenaries and large numbers of children and women are arrested and kept at hands of SDF,

Gabriel pointed out at the beginning of his speech that during the campaigns that we launched in the north and east of Syria, we have arrested a large number of mercenary elements, and whoever was dealing with them, and after investigating some of them and proving that some were not involved in terrorist operations against the people, they were released after coordination between us and clans' notables in the  area, and added saying, "Now there are still between 700 and 800 foreign IS mercenaries existing into our hands, as well as a large number of IS mercenaries’ children and women."

Gabrielle noted, "These IS mercenaries are still being held in special detention centers that are being protected in coordination with the Internal Security Forces. The investigation with these IS mercenaries is continuing, and through investigations, we seek to get information that would be useful to us in our fight against terrorism."

Why countries do not receive their citizens who joined IS mercenaries?

Gabrielle added, "There are various reasons and conditions that prevent these countries from requesting the receipt of their citizens who joined IS mercenaries, some of them are legal and others bureaucratic, some of which are linked to the laws of those countries since these IS mercenaries did not conduct operations directly related to their countries. Therefore, they cannot prosecute them for crimes committed outside the borders of their countries, and therefore, sanctions will not be sufficient to deter them and to hold them accountable for the crimes they committed. In addition, there are reasons related to documents proving the mercenaries' belonging to those countries, and reasons related to those countries so they must clarify the reasons and justifications."

There are circumstances that prevent us from prosecuting these IS mercenaries in North Syria

As for dealing with these IS mercenaries, Gabriel noted that all of them are mercenaries, but the circumstances forced us to be careful during our deal with them, and he said in this context, "Some of these IS mercenaries did not commit any crimes in Syria as they were in Iraq and were arrested at the border during their fleeing from Iraq to Syria. How will they be tried? And the international community has not yet recognized the courts we have, how foreign people here will be prosecuted? Where will they be deported later? In addition, we need great potentials so we cannot accommodate these IS mercenaries and their families, and according to our present situation, especially in terms of infrastructure, we cannot judge the long-term provisions of these mercenaries, especially we do not have the death penalty because we believe in the right to life for every human being.

As for the Iraqi IS mercenaries who committed crimes in Iraq, Gabriel said, "There are proposals and ideas to bring them back to Iraq."

Our proposal is to establish an international court specialized terrorism to prosecute IS mercenaries

"There is a proposal or an idea to overcome all obstacles and difficulties to try these IS mercenaries, namely the establishment of an international court specialized to terrorism here in North Syria, or in Iraq to try these mercenaries who have committed crimes against humanity and against the Iraqi and Syrian peoples of all its components," he said.

We were not part to the agreement on al-Suweida kidnapped, but we are fully ready to offer various kinds of assistance in this context

As for some media outlets about the participation of SDF in the agreement of exchanging IS mercenaries’ captives with al-Suweida kidnapped, the official spokesman of SDF Keno denied this information saying, "This subject that was addressed by the media outlets is not true. The agreement was with the Syrian regime, and this is what we have sought over the past few days, but we as SDF, declared our readiness to provide assistance by various means to liberate the abductees of Suweida governorate, or even anywhere else in Syria. We have already shown our readiness to do so."

(T/S)

ANHA