Baghdad: The Iraqi Supreme Judicial Council announced today the completion of the interrogation and investigation phase for 5,704 defendants, members of the ISIS terrorist organization transferred from northeastern Syria, and their referral to the relevant courts for trial in accordance with applicable Iraqi laws.
According to National Iraqi News Agency, the preliminary investigations began in February 2026, and the investigative work continued through interrogation, evidence gathering, and verification until the completion of investigations with all 5,704 defendants, paving the way for the resolution of their cases according to legal procedures. The statement indicated that the verification process revealed that the case file includes individuals of 67 nationalities, including 16 Arab nationalities, 19 nationalities from European Union countries, and 32 other foreign nationalities. The number of Iraqis reached 474, and the number of Syrians 3,497, reflecting the international nature of the case and the complexity of the facts, evidence, and the backgrounds of the individuals involved.
The judiciary indicated that the most prominent results of the investigation and judicial procedures included identifying and exposing the leaders and documenting evidence from the first tier and highly dangerous elements, along with documenting their biometric data (fingerprints, iris scans, DNA), defining their titles and organizational roles, and identifying six defendants directly linked to the crimes of enslavement, detention, transportation, and trafficking of Yazidi women.
The judiciary explained that it adopted a special approach to the events, employing an independent mechanism that includes age estimation through forensic medicine and studying psychological and social conditions. Additionally, it released and transferred an American detainee, a Finnish detainee, and seven Iraqis due to insufficient evidence, while completing the procedures for transferring 457 Syrian detainees to the Syrian authorities through security and diplomatic coordination.
It added that legal and logistical guarantees were provided by securing lawyers for the defendants in coordination with the Bar Association, facilitating visits by the International Committee of the Red Cross and diplomatic missions, and equipping remote trial rooms via closed-circuit television (CCTV) networks to handle defendants deemed a high security risk.