Iraq sends 188 children of alleged Turkish ISIS members to Turkey
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Iraq has sent 188 children of Turkish nationals suspected of membership in the so-called Islamic State to Turkey, officials from Iraq’s judiciary said on Wednesday.
The children boarded a plane in Baghdad that was expected to be flown directly to Turkey.
Representatives of the Iraqi judiciary, an Iraqi foreign ministry official, a representative of the Turkish embassy in Iraq, as well as representatives from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) were present at Baghdad International Airport, Reuters reported.
According to a spokesperson for Iraq’s judiciary, many among the 188 children had “come of age” and had already been convicted for illegally crossing the border into Iraq.
“The central investigations court, which is responsible for the terrorism file and foreign suspects, has handed the Turkish side 188 children left behind by [ISIS] terrorists in Iraq,” Judge Abdul-Sattar al-Birqdar, a spokesperson for the Iraqi judiciary, said in a statement.
The development comes following a meeting between Iraqi President Barham Salih and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Turkey on Tuesday.
The Islamic State emerged in Iraq in 2014 and quickly occupied vast swaths of territory in the country. In late 2017, Iraq declared final victory against the terrorist organization, but the Islamic State continues to launch insurgent attacks, ambushes, and kidnappings across the country.
Iraqi courts have put hundreds of foreigners on trial for connections with the extremist group, sentencing many to life in prison and others to death.
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Under Iraqi law, children from the age of 9 can be held accountable for crimes. At least 185 children between the ages of 9 and 18 have faced trial and been sentenced, some serving up to 15 years in juvenile detention in Baghdad, according to Reuters.
Human rights groups have criticized chronic flaws in the judicial process in Iraq and continued unfair trials in which either no evidence has been submitted or where credible claims have been made that torture was used to coerce confessions.
Editing by John J. Catherine
