BAGHDAD: The family of slain Daesh group leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi has been brought back to Iraq for interrogation, judicial officials said on Thursday.
Washington announced in October 2019 that US troops had killed Baghdadi in an operation in northwestern Syria, around five years after he proclaimed an Islamic “caliphate” which he and his fighters ruled with brutality across much of Iraq and neighboring Syria.
Iraq’s judiciary has secured “the repatriation of the family of the terrorist Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi,” the Supreme Judicial Council said on its website.
It did not specify how many family members or where they had been repatriated from.
A judicial source, however, told AFP that Baghdadi’s wife, “detained in Turkiye,” had been returned along with her children.
The source spoke under cover of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press.
According to the Judicial Council, the repatriation fell under efforts to “recover those accused of terrorism who have been on the run outside of Iraq.”
Over several years, Iraqi courts have handed down hundreds of death sentences as well as life prison terms under the penal code for membership in “a terrorist group.”
Among those convicted in Iraq were more than 500 foreign men and women found guilty of joining Daesh.
The Judicial Council said Baghdadi’s relatives had been questioned and “investigations continue with them to bring to light the most important secrets” of Daesh.
Iraq regularly repatriates citizens from Syria, particularly from Al-Hol camp, which hosts about 50,000 people, including family members of suspected militants.
Iraq’s announcement about Baghdadi’s family coincided with a broadcast on Thursday of an interview with “Baghdadi’s wife” by Saudi-owned pan-Arab TV channel Al Arabiya. It named her as Asmaa Mohamed.
In November 2019, Turkiye said it had arrested a wife of the polygamous Baghdadi, whom Turkish media identified as Asma Fawzi Muhammad Al-Qubaysi, in June 2018.
She revealed “a lot of information” about the militant group’s “inner workings,” a Turkish official said at the time.
US-backed forces defeated Daesh in Iraq in 2017, and two years later in Syria.
But remnants of the group continue to attack civilians and security forces in both countries.
Family of slain Daesh chief repatriated, questioned in Iraq: judiciary
https://arab.news/2ys6a
Family of slain Daesh chief repatriated, questioned in Iraq: judiciary
- Iraq’s judiciary has secured “the repatriation of the family of the terrorist Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi,” the Supreme Judicial Council said
- It did not specify how many family members or where they had been repatriated from
EU warns Israel suspending Gaza NGOs would block ‘life-saving aid’
BRUSSELS: The EU warned Wednesday that Israel's threat to suspend several aid groups in Gaza from January would block "life-saving" assistance from reaching the population.
"The EU has been clear: the NGO registration law cannot be implemented in its current form," EU humanitarian chief Hadja Lahbib posted on X, after Israel said several groups would be barred for failing to provide details of their Palestinian employees.
"IHL (international humanitarian law) leaves no room for doubt: aid must reach those in need," Lahbib wrote.
NGOs had until December 31 to register under the new framework, which Israel says aims to prevent "hostile actors or supporters of terrorism" operating in the Palestinian territories, rather than impede aid.
Israeli authorities announced Tuesday that organisations which "refused to submit a list of their Palestinian employees in order to rule out any links to terrorism" had received notice that their licences would be revoked as of January 1, with an obligation to cease all activities by March 1.
Israel has not disclosed the number of groups facing a ban, but it has specifically called out Doctors Without Borders (MSF) for failing to meet the rules. It accused the medical charity of employing two individuals with links to Palestinian armed groups.
The Israeli government told AFP earlier this month that 14 NGO requests had been rejected as of November 25.
Several NGOs said the new rules will have a major impact on aid distribution in Gaza, with humanitarian organisations saying the amount of aid entering Gaza remains inadequate.
While an accord for a ceasefire that started on October 10 stipulated the entry of 600 trucks per day, only 100 to 300 are carrying humanitarian aid, according to NGOs and the United Nations.
COGAT, the Israeli defence ministry body responsible for Palestinian civilian affairs, said last week that on average 4,200 aid trucks enter Gaza weekly, which corresponds to around 600 daily.
