Harvard researcher talks trials, prison torture for ISIS suspects in Iraq

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Vera Mironova, a graduate research fellow at Harvard University, has spoken to Rudaw about prison conditions and trials for alleged members of the Islamic State, saying many of them face torture in prisons across Iraq.

“Many women in Baghdad prisons still hope that ISIS are going to come and liberate them. That’s their only hope of going back,” Mironova  told Rudaw's Shahyan Tahseen on December 7.

The researcher said there are no concrete figures on the number of ISIS prisoners in Iraq because "Iraq is not open about their numbers." 

Around 20 to 30 percent of prisons are not run by the government, she added, which also makes it hard to record ISIS prisoners, but said there is "a lot of torture" in local prisons. 

ISIS took control of large parts of Iraq and Syria in 2014. 

Although the Iraqi government announced the territorial defeat of ISIS in December 2017, remnants of the group remain active. 

Thousands of suspected ISIS members are also held in prisons in northeast Syria, with foreign countries unwilling to try suspects at home. 

“Mishandling of the victory over ISIS is going to be a new beginning of ISIS” Mironova added. 

Thousands of suspected members of the Islamic State (ISIS) are expected to be tried in northeast Syria early next year.