Repatriation of Islamic State terrorists in Western Balkans poses challenges for the justice system
The Balkans has been one of the regions of recruitment of foreign fighters joining the ranks of the Islamic State since the terrorist group became an influential non-state actor across eastern Syria and north-western Iraq. There has also been a significant amount of assessments carried out with regards to the issue of foreign fighter returnees and the possible associated threats with them.
According to a February 2019 report by the Western Balkans Extremism Research Forum, a United Kingdom Government funded project, the number of Western Balkans originating travellers to the conflict zones in Syria and Iraq is estimated to be at around 1,000 and of which around 30 percent have already returned, and the percentage of those who have returned is more or less proportionally distributed among all the Western Balkans countries.
According to a January 2020 study by the Italian Institute for International Political Studies, at the end of 2019, about 1,070 nationals of Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Northern Macedonia, Albania, Serbia and Montenegro had travelled to Syria and Iraq.
Although arguably motivated by a variety of reasons, most of them ended up joining jihadist militias and designated terrorist organizations like the Islamic State (IS) and Jabhat al-Nusra. Two-thirds of those who travelled were male adults at the time of departure. The remaining one-third of largely non-combatant travellers was made up of minors (18%) and women (15%).
As of July 2020, North Macedonia, Kosovo, and Bosnia and Herzegovina have repatriated a total of 19 Islamic State militants from Syria. They are the only European countries to have publicly and voluntarily repatriated adult male citizens affiliated with the Islamic State who had been detained by Kurdish-led forces. An analysis by the Balkan Insight Research Network (BIRN) found that Kosovo and Serbia have sentenced the largest number of foreign fighters, while Bosnia and Herzegovina and North Macedonia have had the most convictions for domestic terrorism. As per the BIRN insight, in April 2019, 110 citizens – 32 women, 74 children, mostly under the age of 15, and four adult fighters – returned to Kosovo at once from Syria. Kosovo has indicted 171 persons in total for terrorism, while the courts have sentenced 123 persons on terrorism-related cases. Courts have ruled on 87 indictments filed for participation in foreign wars, while 57 cases remain in progress. As of July 2020, there have been at least eight cases of reported Bosnian Islamic State militants repatriated to Bosnia and Herzegovina as part of two separate repatriation operations.
However, sentences handed down by the Bosnian criminal justice system remain below the average prison term in the European Union for similar crimes. According to the EUROPOL 2020 TE-SAT report, in 2019 the average prison term for Islamist militancy in the EU was five years. The average prison sentence rendered for all terrorist offences (not limited to Islamist militancy) in the EU in 2019 was six years.
North Macedonian courts of first instance have handed down the longest prison sentences in the Western Balkans to repatriated Islamic State militants, as of July 2020. North Macedonia’s National Coordinative Body for Prevention of Violent Extremism and Fight Against Terrorism says it has identified 156 people who participated in fighting in Iraq and Syria, of whom 35 are believed to have died there, while 23 out of 83 who have returned to the country have received sentences.
The return of the IS fighters also poses a significant security risk in the Balkans. They could significantly garner support for the ISIS propaganda in a region which is marred by economic shortages and political vulnerabilities.
Source: New Delhi Times
