Barzani: Transferring ISIS prisoners to Iraq is better than releasing them in Syria.
Barzani: Transferring ISIS prisoners to Iraq is better than releasing them in Syria.
2026-01-22 04:23
Shafaq News – Rome
Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani said on Thursday that transferring ISIS prisoners to Iraq was “better” than releasing them in Syria.
This came in a statement made by Barzani to journalists today on the sidelines of his visit to the Iraqi embassy in Italy.
When asked about the number of prisoners from the extremist organization who would be transferred from Syria to Iraq, the Kurdish leader replied that “the number that will be transferred to Iraq is not known.”
Regarding the security risks of this operation to the Kurdistan Region and Iraq as a whole, Barzani stated that “it is much better to imprison these people in Iraqi prisons than to release them in Syria,” stressing that this agreement was concluded between Iraq and America yesterday.
On Wednesday evening, the US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced the start of transferring thousands of ISIS detainees from Syria to Iraq.
CENTCOM said in a statement: “We have begun a new mission to transfer ISIS detainees from northeast Syria to Iraq, in order to ensure that the terrorists remain in secure detention centers.”
She added, “The transfer mission began in conjunction with the success of US forces in transferring 150 ISIS fighters who were being held in a detention center in Hasakah to a safe location in Iraq, and the total number of detainees to be transferred is expected to reach seven thousand.”
The Prime Minister’s advisor, Hussein Allawi, revealed yesterday evening in a televised interview that ISIS members who will be transferred to Iraq will be detained in special places in the Supreme Judicial Council and the intelligence and security services. He indicated that the majority of them are Iraqis, but there are also foreign detainees with them, and this is what has been done during the past period.
Regarding the reason for Iraq’s agreement to receive them, Allawi explained, “So that we do not repeat the tragedy that the Iraqis went through, Iraq does not want the Middle East region or the world and international security to suffer from the phenomenon of terrorism. Therefore, Iraq is an advanced international partner in the field of combating terrorism and in the field of implementing criminal justice towards these terrorists.”
The Supreme Judicial Council announced this morning, Thursday, the commencement of due process legal procedures against those accused of belonging to the ISIS organization who will be handed over to the Iraqi authorities from the Syrian side.
The Council stated in a statement received by Shafaq News Agency that, “Based on the provisions of the Iraqi Constitution and the applicable penal laws, and in light of the recent security developments in the Syrian Arab Republic, and the resulting transfer of ISIS detainees from prisons that were under the control of the Syrian Democratic Forces, the Supreme Judicial Council announces that the Iraqi judiciary will begin taking the necessary judicial measures against the accused who will be received and placed in the competent correctional institutions.”
The Council stressed the importance of “documenting and archiving terrorist crimes committed in accordance with the principles of justice, and in coordination with the National Center for International Judicial Cooperation, in order to establish the criminal facts of a transnational nature, enhance international judicial cooperation, and ensure that no accused person escapes legal accountability.”
The council affirmed that “all defendants, regardless of their nationalities or positions within the terrorist organization, are subject exclusively to the authority of the Iraqi judiciary, and legal procedures will be applied to them without exception, in a manner that preserves the rights of the victims and enshrines the principle of the rule of law in Iraq.”
shafaq.com
