STOCKHOLM: A Swedish man was convicted and sentenced to life in prison on Thursday for his role in the 2015 killing of a Jordanian pilot by the Daesh militant group, Swedish media reported.
The 26-year-old Jordanian, 1st Lt. Mu’ath Al-Kaseasbeh, was taken captive after his F-16 fighter jet crashed near the extremists’ de facto capital of Raqqa in northern Syria. He was forced into a cage that was set on fire in early 2015.
The suspect, identified by Swedish prosecutors as Osama Krayem, 32, is alleged to have traveled to Syria in September 2014 to fight for Daesh.
Swedish prosecutors say Krayem, armed and masked, was among those who forced Al-Kaseasbeh into the cage. The pilot died in the fire.
Krayem was sentenced to life in prison on Thursday, Swedish news agency TT reported. He was indicted by Swedish prosecutors in May on suspicion of committing serious war crimes and terrorist crimes in Syria.
He was previously convicted in France and Brussels for fatal Daesh attacks in those countries.
The airman became the first known foreign military pilot to fall into the militants’ hands after the US-led international coalition began its aerial campaign against the Daesh group in Syria and Iraq in 2014.
Jordan, a close US ally, was a member of the coalition and the pilot’s killing appeared aimed at pressuring the government of Jordan to leave the alliance.
In a 20-minute video released in 2015, purportedly showing Al-Kaseasbeh’s killing, he displayed signs of having been beaten, including a black eye. He is shown wearing an orange jumpsuit and standing in an outdoor cage as a masked militant ignites a line of fuel leading to it.
The footage, widely released as part of the militant group’s propaganda, sparked outrage and anti-Daesh demonstrations in Jordan.
In 2022, Krayem was among 20 men convicted by a special terrorism court in Paris for involvement in a wave of Deash attacks in the French capital in 2015, targeting the Bataclan theater, Paris cafés and the national stadium. The assaults killed 130 people and injured hundreds, some permanently maimed.
Krayem was sentenced to 30 years in prison, for charges including complicity to terrorist murder. French media reported that France agreed in March to turn Krayem over to Sweden for the investigation and trial.
In 2023, a Belgian court sentenced Krayem, among others, to life in prison on charges of terrorist murder in connection with 2016 suicide bombings that killed 32 people and wounded hundreds at Brussels airport and a busy subway station in the country’s deadliest peacetime attack.
Krayem was aboard the commuter train that was hit, but did not detonate the explosives he was carrying.
Both the Paris and Brussels attacks were linked to the same Daesh network.
Swedish man convicted for his role in 2015 killing of a Jordanian pilot by Daesh group
https://arab.news/wh83v
Swedish man convicted for his role in 2015 killing of a Jordanian pilot by Daesh group
- Osama Krayem, 32, is alleged to have traveled to Syria in September 2014 to fight for Daesh
- The 26-year-old Jordanian, 1st Lt. Mu’ath Al-Kaseasbeh, was taken captive after his F-16 fighter jet crashed
Pull him off TV: Steve Bannon shuts down Sen. Lindsey Graham
- Trump’s former chief strategist called for the senator to be registered as a foreign agent
DUBAI: Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon called on Tuesday for US Senator Lindsey Graham to be registered as a foreign agent of the Israeli government, escalating a growing conservative backlash against the senator’s vocal support for Israel.
Speaking on his podcast “War Room,” Bannon said Graham should be “pulled off of television,” adding: "This is dangerous… because you have guys like Lindsey Graham and dozens more that are doing the wrong thing.”
In a Fox News interview on Monday, Graham said: “To all the antisemites, to all the isolationists… I’m not with you, I’m with Israel, I will be with Israel to our dying day.”
Graham also urged Gulf Arab states to join military action against Iran. “What I want you to do in the Middle East, to our friends in Saudi Arabia and other places, [is] step forward and say, ‘this is my fight too, I join America, I’m publicly involved in bringing this regime down,’” he said.
In a post on X, Graham questioned the value of a US defense agreement with Saudi Arabia following the evacuation of the American embassy in Riyadh, writing: “Why should America do a defense agreement with a country like the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia that is unwilling to join a fight of mutual interest?”
Faisal Abbas, editor-in-chief of Arab News, responded to Graham’s comments in a Sky News interview, saying: “He flip flops so much, it’s actually entertaining.”
“On one hand, he says he will never set foot in Saudi Arabia. The next day, he’s here signing multimillion-dollar deals.”
“I don’t think anyone here takes him seriously,” Abbas added.
He warned Graham to be careful what he wished for: “Do you really want Saudi Arabia involved in this war putting our oil facilities at risk or do you want us stabilizing the energy markets?”
Graham pressed further, warning that inaction would carry a price. “Hopefully Gulf Cooperation Council countries will get more involved as this fight is in their backyard. If you are not willing to use your military now, when are you willing to use it?”
“Hopefully this changes soon. If not, consequences will follow.”
Graham's remarks drew sharp criticism from Bannon and others including podcast host Megyn Kelly.
She questioned on X whether Graham was overstepping his authority as a senator, writing: “When did Lindsay Graham become our president?”
Kelly also said Graham had threatened Lebanon, Cuba, Saudi Arabia, the wider Arab region, and Spain within a 24-hour period.
The problem with Graham “isn’t (just) that he’s a homicidal maniac, it’s that Trump likes and is listening to him,” she said in another post.
