No international support has been received for the establishment of courts to try foreign members of Islamic State (ISIS), so the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) will carry out this task alone despite the challenges it faces, said Bedran Çiya Kurd, co-chair of the Foreign Relations Department of the AANES on Sunday.
Speaking to al-Arabiya TV channel, Çiya Kurd stressed the increasing danger posed by ISIS in the region, particularly with thousands of terrorists detained in AANES-controlled facilities.
The Kurdish-led administration announced on Saturday that foreign ISIS militants will be tried in the People’s Courts, previously responsible for prosecuting Syrian ISIS militants. This decision comes in response to the prolonged presence of foreign militants in AANES detention centres without trial, necessitating the re-establishment of these courts.
“We are taking this step because of the international community’s failure to meet its obligations to prosecute terrorists. As partners in the international coalition, we had hoped to receive the support of the international community in the judicial aspect of the prosecution of these dangerous terrorists,” said Çiya Kurd in a Twitter post on Sunday.
Çiya Kurd emphasised that the administration operates under the its Terrorism Law, which was revised last year to ensure that justice is served. However, he expressed the urgent need for the international community to actively participate in these trials by providing support and resources.
Highlighting the significance of the cooperation between the Syrian Democratic Forces and the US-led Global Coalition in the fight against ISIS, he pointed out that the establishment of these trials represented a continuation of this joint effort. Despite the lack of response from the international community to the AANES’s repeated requests for support, Çiya Kurd believes that the trials should be held transparently before the public eye, urging the international community to send observers and delegates to actively participate in the process.
