Poor justice systems in Balkan states heightens threaten from IS returnees

Nahla Abdelmonem

Countries in the Balkans are afraid as they prepare to receive their citizens who had joined terrorist groups in Syria and Iraq.

Making the case for these countries worse is the poor nature of their justice systems and also the lack of transparency in them.

Nevertheless, potential failure in dealing with former members of the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria will pose threats to the security of these countries.

These returnees will likely be reintegrated into their own societies. Nonetheless, the lack of proper mechanisms to closely monitor their conduct and moves will be a major threat to security.

Reports from several Balkan states show that a limited number of those who had returned from the battlefields in Syria and Iraq were brought to trial.

Judicial challenges

Kosovo and Serbia held the largest number of trials for IS returnees, according to the news site, Balkan Insight.

Bosnia and Herzegovina and Macedonia also tried a large number of people indicted in internal terrorist offences, the site said.

The problem, however, is that a small number of the returnees were indicted in the trials held in these countries.

In the period between 2007 and 2020, Bosnia and Herzegovina tried 28 people only, Macedonia 18 people, Albania nine people and Serbia 16 people.

Most of the trials gave these people suspended sentences.

Prisons

Those sentenced to prison need to be closely watched so that they cannot spread their ideology inside the prisons. Nevertheless, most of the Balkan states do not have proper systems in this regard.

This is why European states are afraid that the lack of these systems would increase the terrorist threat in them.