HRW Warns against Mass Transfer of ISIL Suspects to Iraq

The New York-based watchdog expressed concern that some countries with significant contingents of prisoners in Syria were seeking to move them across the border.

A Turkish invasion of areas controlled by Kurdish forces has sparked deep concern in Europe about the potential for mass breakouts by members of the ISIL Takfiri group.

Many European governments have been reluctant to repatriate these prisoners to stand trial and have already transferred some to Iraq to be prosecuted.

“Given Iraq’s record of unfair trials, European states should not promote efforts to have their nationals transferred there for prosecution,” HRW’s Iraq researcher Belkis Wille said.

Any government supporting such a move “without taking measures to remove the risk of torture, sham trials and execution risks contributing to serious abuses,” she said.

Wille said her organization’s monitoring showed that trials in Iraq were “inherently unfair and replete with due process violations”.

She urged Britain, Denmark, France, Germany and other countries to seek their nationals’ repatriation instead.