COPENHAGEN, Denmark - A court in Sweden has sentenced two men to life imprisonment over "terror crime" murders carried out by Islamic State (ISIS) militants in Syria in 2013, Swedish media reported. The two Swedish citizens, Hassan Al-Mandlawi, 32, and Al Amin Sultan, 30, were convicted of terrorism by the court in Gothenburg, after they fought alongside ISIS in Syria. Monday’s decision was the first of its kind in Sweden. The men were among others caught on a video showing an ISIS execution. It was reported to have happened in the Syrian city of Aleppo in 2013. Shoresh Rahim, the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) representative in Stockholm, praised the court judgment and called for cooperation between Sweden and the KRG in northern Iraq to stop ISIS recruitment. “We need cooperation between the Swedish and KRG police to find information about these ISIS militants and exchange intelligence,” Rahim told Rudaw. Some 300 people in Sweden are believed to have left for Syria and Iraq to join ISIS, among them some Kurds. But that number is “only the top of the mountain,” Rahim warned. “Many more people share these values by helping ISIS, sending money, spreading their messages in the mosques,” he said. He hoped the Swedish judgment will make it harder for people to recruit young Muslims in the country to ISIS, but admitted that it will not completely prevent radicalization of youth. “We would be too naive if we believed this will stop people from going to ISIS. But it will help and have an effect,” Rahim said. Iranian-Kurd Shabnam Asadzadeh, who is studying nursing in Sweden and was in Suruc in Turkey and Kobani in Syria last June to help with skills, food and money donated by the Kurdish community in Sweden, welcomed the Swedish court’s decision. “I am very happy with the judgment,” she told Rudaw. “With this judgment Sweden sends a clear message that you will be punished for supporting ISIS, even if it is outside Sweden.” European countries have recently intensified crackdowns on radical Islamist groups. Last month 15 Islamists, most Kurds, were arrested across Europe in a coordinated police swoop, suspected for planning attacks, Italian media reported. The suspects were arrested in countries across Europe in collaboration with police from Italy, the UK, Norway, Finland, Germany and Switzerland. Swedish support for the Kurdish struggle against the jihadists has so far been more humanitarian than military. Sweden has been under increasing pressure to step up support for Kurdish forces battling ISIS. Five members of the Swedish parliament are of Kurdish origin, representing around 80,000 Kurds who live in Sweden.
