ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The head of Iraq's Supreme Judicial Council, Faiq Zaidan, arrived in Syria on Thursday for an official visit and talks with Damascus' Justice Minister Mazhar Abdul Rahman al-Weiss, Baghdad's state media reported, noting the file of Islamic State (ISIS) detainees transferred to Iraq from detention centers in northeast Syria (Rojava) earlier this year at the top of its agenda.
“Judge Faiq Zaidan arrived in Syria on an official visit, where he was received by Syrian Justice Minister Mazhar Abdul Rahman al-Weiss to discuss a number of dossiers, most notably the file of ISIS terrorist organization detainees who were transferred to Iraqi prisons,” the state-run Iraqi News Agency (INA) reported.
The detainees in reference were transferred from prisons and detention centers previously secured by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in Rojava.
Earlier this year, Syrian government forces and allied armed groups advanced into areas held by the SDF, and weeks later, on January 29, Damascus and the Kurdish-led forces struck a landmark agreement, amid significant mediation by Washington and political leaders from the Kurdistan Region.
In the wake of the offensive, SDF units were also forced to withdraw from detention facilities holding thousands of ISIS prisoners, some of whom escaped amid the ensuing chaos.
The US Central Command (CENTCOM) later reported that in the aftermath of the clashes, American troops carried out emergency evacuations, transferring “5,704 remaining ISIS detainees from detention facilities in Syria to government facilities in Iraq.”
The National Center for International Judicial Cooperation (NCIJC), an affiliate of the SJC, later detailed that the transferred detainees include 3,543 Syrians, 467 Iraqis, 710 nationals of other Arab countries, and more than 980 foreigners from Europe, Asia, Australia, and the US.
In mid-July, a senior judiciary official told Rudaw that Iraq had concluded “investigation and accountability procedures” for some 85 percent of the ISIS detainees transferred from Syria, adding that their cases are expected to be referred to courts for rulings starting in August.
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