Iraq’s judicial system has found a way to punish the deputy leader of ISIS after his extradition from Turkey. Ismail Alwan Salman al-Ithawi has been sentenced to death by hanging on terrorism charges in Iraq, it has emerged.
One of the most important persons in the ISIS management, 55-year-old Ismail Alwan Salman al-Ithawi, have fled Syria as the terror group’s self-proclaimed ‘caliphate’ crumbled. Later, he was extradited from Turkey to Iraq. The former ISIS ‘minister’ in charge of religious edicts and was considered a deputy of terror chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
‘The Karkh criminal court in Baghdad sentenced to death by hanging one of the most prominent leaders of IS, who served as a deputy of Baghdadi,’
judicial spokesman Abdel Sattar Bayraqdar said.
It was not clear why Ithawi was given a death sentence despite his cooperation with authorities.
An Iraqi judge with knowledge of Ithawi’s trial, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss legal deliberations, said Ithawi’s cooperation had indeed helped authorities track down other Islamic State figures. But under Iraq’s anti-terrorism law, cooperation does not guarantee immunity from prosecution or from a maximum sentence, the judge said.
“If we arrest Baghdadi, no matter how much he cooperates, he will get the death sentence,” the judge said in an interview. “This is the least we can do for the victims of the Islamic State.”
The judge added that Ithawi was represented by a public defender but declined to say how long the proceedings took. As a rule, the numerous trials of foreigners accused of joining the terrorists from ISIS lasted less than 20 minutes each before those defendants were sentenced to death.
