ISIS’ Umm Sayyaf to be sentenced in Kurdistan

10-08-2015

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Umm Sayyaf, the wife of prominent ISIS leader Abu Sayyaf, who was killed by a US Special Forces operation in Syria on May 15, will be sentenced in the Kurdistan region after being handed over by the US to local authorities.

“We will sentence her based on fair and legal measures,” judicial council spokesman Umed Mohsin told Rudaw Monday.

“US forces handed over the criminal Nasrin As'ad Ibrahim (Umm Sayyaf) to the Kurdistan region security council for a trial, and upon the order of the judge, she has been held at the Erbil Asayish (security forces) investigation department,” Mohsin added.

“The detainee holds Iraqi citizenship, and was born in 1990 in Baghdad. She was handed over to the Kurdistan region on August 6, and she will be investigated in accordance with the terror law, and we as the judicial council of the Kurdistan region will provide her legal rights, including finding her a lawyer. As of now, we are waiting for the result of investigations,” he continued.

“After the investigations are finished and a verdict is issued, we will await the judges’ decision to transfer her to a private court or release her,” Mohsin said.

Earlier this week, the US Department of Defense announced that Ibrahim was transferred to Iraqi custody and was being held by the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) Ministry of Interior. Ibrahim was taken prisoner during a US raid on suspicion she was an ISIS member who also assisted in the enslavement of at least one young girl.

“This transfer is consistent with [Department of Defense] policy to detain, interrogate, and, where appropriate, seek the prosecution of individuals who are captured on the battlefield,” read a US Department of Defense statement regarding Ibrahim’s transfer to Kurdish custody.

The US statement did not address why the prisoner was transferred to the KRG instead of the central government, and did not specify how long Ibrahim will be in KRG custody, where she is being held or if she will be charged with a crime.