WASHINGTON DC— Chairman of Senate Foreign Relations, Senator John McCain has challenged the White House decision to hand over Nasrin As'ad Ibrahim (Umm Sayyaf), the wife of a prominent ISIS leader to the Kurdish authorities in Erbil, asking why she was not extradited to US to stand a trial.
“I am deeply concerned by the Administration’s decision to transfer to the Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraq Nasrin As’ad Ibrahim, also known as Umm Sayyaf, who was captured by U.S. forces in Syria on May 15 during the operation that killed her husband, Abu Sayyaf, a senior leader in the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL),” said Senator McCain in a letter posted on his website on Thursday.
Senator McCain asked Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter to provide “detailed explanation in writing for why Umm Sayyaf was not extradited to the United States to stand trial.”
McCain’s letter that is addressed to Secretary of Defense and Attorney General Loretta Lynch, said that Umm Sayyaf had worked with top ISIS command and was behind the death of US citizen Kayla Mueller in Syria in February.
“Umm Sayyaf was clearly involved at the top levels of a foreign terrorist organization with which the United States is in a state of hostilities,” it reads.
The US Department of Defense announced last week that it had transferred Iraqi citizen Umm Sayyaf, 25, to the KRG, citing “legal, diplomatic, intelligence, security, and law enforcement considerations,”
In his letter McCain wants assurances that Umm Sayyaf will be held accountable for her alleged crimes, saying: “I would also like to know what commitments, if any, the Kurdistan Regional Government or the Government of Iraq have provided to ensure that Umm Sayyaf is held responsible for her actions,”
