Many remain in camps in Syria under the control of the Syrian Democratic Forces. (File)
Washington:
The US Department of Justice said Thursday it had brought home 27 Americans who traveled to Syria and Iraq to join the Islamic State group, as Washington again urged other countries to do the same.
A day after filing charges against a Trinidadian-American father and son who enlisted in the Islamic State in 2015, the department said it had filed criminal prosecutions in support of terrorism against some of those Americans from return.
Washington has said it is setting an example for other countries, including Britain and France, which have resisted the repatriation of perhaps hundreds of their nationals from Iraq and Syria.
“It was our moral responsibility to the American people and to the people of the countries to which these terrorists were traveling,” Deputy Attorney General John Demers said in a statement.
The 27 are just a part of the hundreds of Americans and thousands of citizens of other countries who, often with their families, enlisted in the Islamic State as it embarked on a bloody campaign to establish its “caliphate.” Across Syria and Iraq six years ago.
Many remain in camps in Syria under the control of the Syrian Democratic Forces.
Demers said they have repatriated the 27 “against whom we have charges”, suggesting there may still be more, as cases are built against them. He did not provide details of the charges.
Foreign fighters problem
After considering whether to abandon the American “foreign fighters” for the Islamic State in the region or transfer them to the American army prison camp at Guantanamo, Washington decided two years ago to put them on trial. in federal courts.
Among those accused of “material support for a designated terrorist group” is Ruslan Maratovich Asainov, 44, a naturalized US citizen born in Kazakhstan, described as an IS sniper and weapons trainer.
Texas-born Omer Kuzu was also indicted, who at 17 traveled to Syria with his brother in 2014 and worked as an IS communications specialist before his capture last year.
Some American allies have been reluctant to bring their nationals home.
London has refused to try El Shafee Elsheikh and Alexanda Kotey, two British men linked to the killings of American and British journalists and aid workers in connection with a notorious Islamic State kidnapping cell dubbed The Beatles.
Instead, Washington is now preparing their transfer to the United States for trial.
Washington has lobbied the repatriation issue, vetoing Indonesia’s August 31 resolution on the treatment of foreign fighters because it did not demand that countries act to resume their.
The State Department on Thursday praised Italy for repatriating one of its citizens to stand trial for his support for the Islamic State.
“The repatriation and prosecution of terrorists is the most effective way to prevent them from returning to the battlefield,” said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
Politics of Terror
“The United States should be recognized for putting into practice what it preaches to bring citizens to justice,” said Seamus Hughes of the George Washington University Program on Extremism.
But he added that the “material support” status used by US authorities has a “comparatively easier threshold” for charges and convictions than laws in Europe.
Moreover, he said, the number of European foreign fighters is much higher than that of Americans, and therefore a much greater challenge.
Some cases of US material support have been criticized for being overzealous.
One of the first, Samantha Marie Elhassani, was charged in Chicago federal court with material support to a designated terrorist group in 2018.
But she claimed that she and her two children were forced to go to the Syrian war zone in 2015 by her husband.
Her lawyers were able to secure a reduced charge, providing financial support for the terrorist group, as she admitted to transporting money to Hong Kong for her husband. But she still faces a possible 10-year prison sentence.
“For the policy of the war on terror, they have to sort of turn them into ISIS operatives,” Thomas Durkin, a Chicago lawyer in the Elhassani case, said of some of the ministry’s cases. Justice.
(This story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
