Iraq has rejected a Syrian request to repatriate thousands of suspected Islamic State (IS) members transferred from detention centres in Syria to Iraqi custody earlier this year, a senior Iraqi security official said.
Iraqi National Security Advisor Qasim al-Aboudi said Wednesday that a recent meeting involving Syria, Iraq and the United States discussed the fate of the detainees.
He said Syria had requested the transfer of around 4,000 Syrian prisoners to face trial in their home country, but Iraq turned down the request.
Iraq has determined that about 400 Syrian detainees were not members of the Islamic State group and could be released, al-Aboudi told The Associated Press. Around 50 have already been repatriated.
Hundreds of the Syrians still held in Iraq are believed to be senior members of the extremist group.
“Iraq is conducting investigations, and anyone proved to have committed crimes in Iraq will be tried under Iraqi law,” he said.
Some prisoners could eventually be transferred to their home countries to serve the remainder of their sentences, he added.
Syria did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
More than 5,700 prisoners suspected of having links to IS, including around 4,000 Syrians, were transferred from northeastern Syria to Iraq after clashes erupted in January between Syrian government forces and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which had long guarded the detention centres.
Some IS-linked prisoners managed to escape amid the fighting, raising fears of a larger-scale breakout.
Although the extremist group has lost control of the territories it seized in Iraq and Syria years ago, its cells continue to carry out sporadic attacks in both countries.
Discussions over the detainees' future come as the United States has ended its 12-year mission to combat IS in Iraq, with the last US troops withdrawing from the country last month.
Al-Aboudi said Iraq had sought financial assistance from the United States and other members of the global coalition against IS to cover the costs of detaining the prisoners.
“Iraq asked for an allocation of $500 million. The coalition promised support, but Iraq is still waiting,” he said.
A US defence official and the office of Tom Barrack, the US envoy to Syria and Iraq, referred questions about the detainees to Iraqi and Syrian authorities.
Many of those transferred to Iraq had spent years in detention in Syria without being charged. Rights groups have expressed concerns over detention conditions in both countries.
Human Rights Watch said in a report this week that “the Iraqi justice system has a documented history of torture and unlawful executions.”
The organisation urged Iraqi authorities to comply with international standards on fair trials and detention and to abolish the death penalty.
Al-Aboudi said detainees from countries that do not impose capital punishment would not face the death penalty.
Prisoners from countries that have prisoner exchange agreements with Iraq could be sent home to serve their sentences after conviction, he added.
Many Western countries, however, have been reluctant to repatriate citizens accused or convicted of having links to IS, as well as women and children believed to be family members of the group's militants.