ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - An Iraqi Investigation Court has completed the interrogation phase for 5,704 accused members of the Islamic State (ISIS) from 67 nationalities, the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) announced on Tuesday, as judicial bodies prepare to pass the suspects to competent trial courts in batches to face charges based on individual evidence.
The SJC announced the conclusion of initial investigations, having begun in February, on “investigative work encompassing interrogations, evidence gathering, and auditing” of “inquiries for all 5,704 suspects,” to clear the way to resolve their cases in accordance with legal procedures.
The list includes suspects spanning 67 nationalities, including 16 Arab nations and 19 European Union countries, the council said. Iraqis account for 474 of the detainees, while 3,497 are Syrian, according to the council
In February, the SJC confirmed receiving 5,704 suspected ISIS members of different nationalities in a US-led transfer operation from Syria to Iraq.
Karkh Central Prison in Baghdad has been designated as the main facility where the prisoners will be assembled before procedures for their transfer are completed.
The SJC said Tuesday that it has established specialized procedures for juvenile cases, incorporating forensic age assessments and psychological evaluations.
Officials also cleared nine detainees—one Finnish, one American, and seven Iraqis—due to lack of evidence, and are finalizing plans to repatriate 457 Syrian nationals after determining their cases lacked sufficient legal grounds.
Meanwhile, investigators uncovered evidence of grave crimes against the Yazidi population, noting “six suspects were identified whose files showed direct involvement in the enslavement, detention, transfer, sale, supervision, or exploitation of the slavery system established by ISIS.”
After seizing large parts of northern and western Iraq in June 2014, ISIS militants in August launched a brutal campaign against the Yazidi community in Shingal, killing an estimated 5,000 to 10,000 Yazidi men and older women, and abducting 6,000 to 7,000 women and girls for sexual slavery and human trafficking. The United Nations officially recognized the campaign against the Yazidis as a genocide in June 2016.
Iraqi forensic teams - in coordination with UN agencies - have so far excavated 82 mass graves across Shingal out of more than 90 documented sites, recovering the remains of over 770 victims of the 2014 Islamic State genocide.
Iraq relies on its 2005 anti-terrorism law to prosecute ISIS suspects, which allows for the death penalty for membership in a terrorist organization.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) in February accused Iraqi authorities of conducting rushed trials of ISIS detainees, raising alarm over the lack of due process and claiming some convictions were based on confessions allegedly obtained through torture.
According to the international watchdog, around 8,000 ISIS detainees are on death row.
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