Jihadists who have returned home after fighting with the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria must be prosecuted internationally for war crimes, argued Eurojust, the European unit for judicial cooperation, on Saturday. Many of these fighters are currently facing charges governed by national laws on terrorism, denounced in a report Eurojust and Genocide Network, an organization created by the European Union to ensure cooperation between national investigators and prosecutions for the crime of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.
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But they could be charged with broader charges under international law covering the worst crimes committed in conflict, says Eurojust, headquartered in The Hague, the Netherlands. The Islamic State group should be considered under international humanitarian law as "a party to a non-international armed conflict in Iraq and Syria," the report said. "As a result, its members and foreign terrorist fighters could be held responsible for committing war crimes and other basic international crimes , " writes Eurojust. Examples of "cumulative charges" already exist, notably in France and Germany, the agency said.
Eurojust and Genocide Network demand that such prosecutions be established on an international scale, allowing to demand longer sentences. In addition, the prosecution of the main international crimes is not limited in time, which will give prosecutors the opportunity to "work on these cases for the decades to come," says Eurojust.