ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A Dutch national held in Kurdish-run detention in northeast Syria has called for the establishment of an international process to try suspected members of the the Islamic State (ISIS).
Munir al-Kherbashi has already been sentenced in absentia for his involvement with ISIS by a Dutch court, he told Rudaw in an interview on Sunday.
“We are waiting to go back to our countries, to get our [court] process in our countries back home. They have already given me my sentence in Holland, from 2016, I have a judgement. They sentenced me six years [in prison],” Kherbashi told Rudaw.
At the height of its power, ISIS controlled an area of Iraq and Syria equivalent to the size of the United Kingdom, subjecting close to ten million people to the organization’s extreme interpretation of Islam.
Thousands of European citizens flocked to the ISIS caliphate to fight for the group, mainly through the Turkey-Syria border.
While Kherbashi told Rudaw that talk of cooperative Turkey-ISIS relations is not based on any evidence, he described the ease of movement across the Turkish border in ISIS’ early years as “strange.”
With the territorial defeat of ISIS in March 2019 by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), thousands of ISIS fighters are now being held in SDF-run prisons. Thousands of suspect spouses and children live in the overcrowded al-Hol camp in northeast Syria.
European countries have refused to take their citizens back on more than a case by case basis, saying they fear threats to their own national security and that gathering evidence to try the fighters could prove a legal minefield.
The issue has been so contentious that the repatriation of a Norwegian woman and her two children led a party in Norway to withdraw from the country’s right-wing government coalition on Monday.
While Iraq has offered to try ISIS suspects in its courts, Western countries have been wary to take Baghdad up on its offer amid questionable trial processes and the handing down of death penalty sentences.
The SDF and some European powers had called for the establishment of an international tribunal to process detained ISIS members.
“An international judge would be a good thing because then at least we get the process and the trial, and hence the sentence,” Kherbashi said.
"If they give you six, eight, ten years, then at least you will know you are going to spend your time in prison and then afterwards you are free and you can start your life again, learn from your mistakes," he added.
“We hope the Europeans and the West, with the SDF, try find us a solution for the process.”
Facing prolonged uncertainty about his return, the Dutch national said he wouldn’t mind living somewhere other than his home country, including Syria.
“I don't know which country would accept me, but if it is stable and it is possible to live here in Syria, I would like to live in Syria with my family. If that would be possible,” Kherbashi said.
"I would like [to live] in any country that would accept me, as long as I am free. Everyone knows freedom is important for them," he added.
“If you get a second chance, then you will not try to create more trouble for yourself because we already are in a big predicament. We don't want more problems. This is how I think about it.”
