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The UK has failed to prosecute a single ISIS fighter for genocide despite allowing hundreds of them to return to the UK, after the terrorist organisation was defeated in Iraq and Syria, a new Parliamentary report has revealed.
Parliament’s Joint Committee on Human Rights is demanding a change in the law that would make it easier for the UK to prosecute suspected ISIS fighters. MPs and peers have drafted new clauses to the Crime and Policing Bill, now going through Parliament, to amend the International Criminal Court Act to allow genocide and war crimes prosecutions in the UK regardless of whether the person was a British citizen.
At present the UK Government insists people who commit war crimes should be prosecuted in the countries where they committed their atrocities, but since Syria does not currently have a stable government and the Iraqi Government lacks the resources to pursue prosecutions, nothing is happening.
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The committee highlights the genocide of the Yazidi people in Iraq where 5,000 people were killed and 200,000 displaced and yet nobody has been prosecuted, despite it happening over 10 years ago.
The report also begs the question why 425 of the 850 suspected male fighters have been allowed back in Britain while enormous effort was made over the high profile case of Shamina Begum, who married an Isis fighter in Iraq to prevent her from coming back. She lost her British citizenship and is still languishing in a camp in Syria.
Crossbench Chair of the Joint Committee on Human Rights, Lord David Alton said: “This is not something the UK can simply wash its hands of because it happened overseas. We know that British nationals committed the most horrendous crimes in Iraq and Syria under the Daesh [Isis] regime and we have a duty to see them brought to justice. To date, no Daesh fighters have been successfully prosecuted for international crimes in the UK and we find this unacceptable.
“We want to see more action from the Government in identifying the perpetrators, some of whom may have returned to Britain, others likely detained in camps in Syria. This will require better coordination from law enforcement and criminal justice, and also the removal of barriers preventing some prosecutions.”
A Government spokesperson said: “The Government’s priority remains maintaining the safety and security of the UK and we are committed to achieving accountability for all victims of Daesh’s crimes.
“We will consider the findings of this report.”
Stripping Citizenship
The report also highlights that the UK is a world leader in depriving citizens of British citizenship. It has stripped 1,080 people of citizenship between 2010 and 2023. Some 858 lost citizenship because of fraudulent claims but 222 were made because it was seen as conducive to the public good. Some 104 were made in 2017 when Amber Rudd was home secretary and Theresa May was PM.
The committee is critical of the lack of transparency and accountability over these cases. Jonathan Hall, KC, the Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation, told the committee that he was frustrated that he had no power to review what was happening.
“The number of times it was used in 2017 contrasts enormously with… the number of prosecutions relating to Daesh, or to the number of temporary exclusion orders, which I review… more transparency and public understanding can only be a good thing.”
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“Deprivation impinges on the fate of children who were brought over by their families. These victims of poor parental choice are detained in dire conditions, surrounded by violence, and (in the case of boys) face removal to adult detention on reaching adolescence. Although no children have been deprived of citizenship, many of their mothers have.”
Katherin Cornett ,Head of the Syria and Iraq Detention Project at Reprieve said: “We know that, since 2010, there have been at least 217 deprivations under the so-called conducive to the public good power. That is a 4,000% increase in citizenship deprivations compared to the last three decades. The UK now uses this power more than almost any other state; we believe that, other than Nicaragua and Bahrain, the UK is a global leader in using this now.”