Berlin to try German Daesh fighter, rehabilitate children

Mohamed Abdel-Ghaffar

As the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) announced defeating Daesh in the battle of Al-Baghouz on February 9, 2019, several crises and disagreements emerged, including the future of Daesh remnants.

International stands on this issue varied, as Western countries and the United States of America refused to receive their citizens who fought with Daesh.

Iraq and Syria, on the other hand, demanded countries to receive their own citizens and expressed rediness to deport them immediately. However, Iraq retreated the decision and demanded countries to pay in exchange for holding trials for these terrorists in Baghdad.

Germany announced its position on German terrorists in Syria and Iraq, where Foreign Minister Heiko Mass has pledged to prosecute them in their country, and Berlin will recover their children for rehabilitation.

He told German Bild newspaper that Berlin is working to recapture the children of former German Daesh fighters, adding, “We are trying to identify the German women detained in northern Syria, in preparation for their trial before the German judiciary.”

According to special sources, a number of Daesh German orphans will be handed over to the German Foreign Ministry at Simalka border crossing in August.

This is the first return of more than 100 Daesh German children, in addition to dozens of men and women, who have been arrested or surrendered to the SDF.

The camps in the north and east of Syria hold up to 12.000 foreigners, including 4.000 women and 8.000 children of foreign jihadist families, who reside in special sections and they are subject to severe security control.

Germany “must be able to ensure prosecution is possible”, the German defense minister, Ursula von der Leyen, said. But the evidence and witness statements needed would be difficult to obtain in Syria as long as there was no government in place with which Berlin had “a sensible relationship”, she said.

Later, Maas, said repatriation would be possible only if returning fighters could be immediately taken into custody, which would be “extremely difficult to achieve” without proper judicial information.