Islamic State emir in Turkey sentenced only to 8 years in prison
A Turkish court on Aug. 2 “hit” five convicts with various jail terms for being members of the Islamic State.
The Heavy Penal Court sentenced Halid Hayrettin Ismail Horuc, an alleged IS “emir” of Iraq’s northern city of Tal-Afar, sentenced only to eight years and nine months in prison, along with his brother Samir Ismail Horuc.
The brothers were charged with being a member and part of the hierarchical structure of the IS.
In his plea, Halid Hayrettin Ismail Horuc said he was recruited by the IS in 2014 when the group captured Mosul.
Also convicted for the IS membership, Muhammad Mohsin Abdulwahab Haider and Alya Ali Khalaft were only sentenced to six years and three months each.
Turkish courts have been releasing alleged IS members without proper investigation or sentencing them just a couple of years in prison if the case becomes public.
One of the most doubtful aspects of the war against the Islamic State has been the role of Turkey. On the one hand, Turkey has been seen as a cornerstone of any strategy to counter the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq. On the other side, Turkey—or, at least, elements within the state that got into power with Erdogan’s Islamist push—appear to back the Islamic State. Indeed, one of the popular theories concerning Turkey’s ban on Wikipedia has been because entries informed by Wikileaks explore financial links between Turkey’s leadership and the Islamic State. To be more clear: Erdogan’s son-in-law, Berat Albayrak and the Islamic State oil agreements were an essential part of Turkey-related Wikileaks files.
However, because of Turkey’s unique position—a reliable and powerful Western ally bridging the Middle East and the West— Turkey’s IS support hasn’t been extensively publicised or criticised. Its “passive support” rather seen as a power play to have more say in the Syrian Civil War. Though, The Guardian’s report on an Italian intelligence documents states that it was more than a “passive support” position.
“Since 15 December 2015, an unknown number of wounded fighters of the Islamic State in Libya have been transported out of the country to an Istanbul hospital to undergo medical treatment.” The bulk of the “false wounded’’ come from the Libyan area of Fataeh, where “elements of the Islamic State would be holed up”, the document states. From there, the fighters are most commonly sent to Turkish hospitals. It claims in one case the fighters showed fake passports to doctors in Misrata and told them they were wounded in Sirte and Benghazi,” The Guardian reported.
The relationship between Turkey and the IS goes even further. More recently, Turkey is recruiting and retraining ISIS fighters under the name of Free Syrian Army (FSA) to lead its invasion of the Kurdish enclave of Afrin in northern Syria, according to an ex-IS source who interviewed with Independent.
Some of the FSA troops advancing into Afrin were open about their loyalty to al-Qaeda and its offshoots. A video posted online shows three uniformed jihadis singing a song in praise of their past battles and “how we were steadfast in Grozny (Chechnya) and Dagestan (North Caucasus). And we took Tora Bora (the former headquarters of Osama bin Laden). And now Afrin is calling to us”.
Source: The Region
