This surprised diplomats working on the issue and raised concerns about procedural issues.
Prisoners play volleyball in a Kurdish-run prison holding former members of the Daesh group in Qamishli, northern Syria. Photo: AP
The US-backed Kurdish autonomous administration, which operates separately from the central government in Damascus, holds about 10,000 suspected IS prisoners who fled the last IS-held bastions in Syria between 2017 and 2019.
Local officials have for years called on foreign countries — including Canada, France, the United Kingdom and others — to repatriate their citizens as well as thousands of foreign women and children who fled IS's self-declared "caliphate" and are being held in detention camps.
On Saturday, the Kurdish-led administration said in an online statement that it had decided to subject the detainees to “open, free and transparent trials” after a delayed response from the international community.
Senior government official Badran Jia Kurd said local anti-terrorism laws expanded last year would be used to prosecute militants.
Jia Kurd said human rights groups and the US-led coalition, which has helped Kurdish-led forces drive IS from swathes of northern Syria, would be invited to attend the trials.
The issue of foreign fighters is one of the most complex security issues in Syria's 12-year war. A Western diplomat working on Syria said the government's decision came as a surprise.
The idea has been discussed in the past but has largely been put aside because of questions about the legality of a regional court operating separately from the Syrian government .
Mai Anh (according to Reuters, AP)
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