Lawyers from North and East Syria call on international community to deal with ISIS prisoners

The Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria is being left alone by the international community to deal with the legal process and the imprisonment of thousands of highly dangerous Islamic State mercenaries. At the same time, ISIS gets support from the areas occupied by Turkey. Among other things, during the devastating attack on the Sina prison in Hesekê in January, the mercenaries infiltrated from the occupation zones and tried to free thousands of members from custody.

The ANHA news agency spoke to representatives of the Union of Lawyers of North and East Syria about the situation. Lawyer Salih Salama said that “the presence of ISIS mercenaries in the prisons is like a live bomb for the Autonomous Administration. What happened in Hesekê’s Sina prison shows the extent of the threat to both the administration and the peoples of North and East Syria. The international community is responsible for what happened in prisons in the region. It should be one of the most important tasks of the international community to take care of ISIS prisoners.”

The lawyer called for the establishment of an international special court and added: “We call on all international organizations to support the Autonomous Administration in fair and just trials.”

“International community has no interest in crimes coming to light”

Mistefa Şêx Muslim from the Union of Lawyers in Kobanê said: “The international community ignores the procedures. Criminals are not brought to justice because they do not want their crimes to be exposed. There are all kinds of laws investigating these crimes. But these regulations are not applied. We call for these terrorists to be brought to justice. Diplomatic delegations from many countries visit the Office for External Relations of the Autonomous Administration very often. There are so many ISIS mercenaries here, but no state takes seriously the establishment of an international tribunal to prosecute these terrorists.”

Finally, Muslim called on the international community and the International Coalition to prosecute all ISIS members in prisons in the region, in accordance with international law.