Months after the final collapse of the so-called Islamic State in the deserts of eastern Syria, tens-of-thousands of its fighters and those that lived within its so-called caliphate face an uncertain future.
Many are in the north-eastern Syrian region of Rojava, where Kurdish authorities hold 10,000 ISIS fighters, including 2,000 foreigners, and wish to see them tried in local courts.
Months after the final collapse of the so-called Islamic State in the deserts of eastern Syria, tens-of-thousands of its fighters and those that lived within its so-called caliphate face an uncertain future.
Now, in northeastern Syria, Europeans who lived in the caliphate are concerned that they will be transferred to Iraq.
"Yes, they said they would send us to Iraq to give us... how do we say it? Life in prison," a French woman said told Euronews in the Ein Issa refugee camp.
"France would have preferred that we were all dead."
At least 11 French nationals have been tried in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, says Nabil Boudi, a lawyer who represents European nationals held in Syria and Iraq for suspected links to ISIS.
Boudi has warned that there could be consequences for France.
"If France's involvement in the transfer (of French prisoners from Syria to Iraq) is documented, proved, France will be condemned in international and European courts," he said.
"France is a signatory of international conventions notably against the death penalty within the context of the Council of Europe, which means it doesn't have the right to transfer its citizens to a country where they practice torture or sentence people to death."
Many are in the north-eastern Syrian region of Rojava, where Kurdish authorities hold 10,000 ISIS fighters, including 2,000 foreigners, and wish to see them tried in local courts.
Months after the final collapse of the so-called Islamic State in the deserts of eastern Syria, tens-of-thousands of its fighters and those that lived within its so-called caliphate face an uncertain future.
Now, in northeastern Syria, Europeans who lived in the caliphate are concerned that they will be transferred to Iraq.
"Yes, they said they would send us to Iraq to give us... how do we say it? Life in prison," a French woman said told Euronews in the Ein Issa refugee camp.
"France would have preferred that we were all dead."
At least 11 French nationals have been tried in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, says Nabil Boudi, a lawyer who represents European nationals held in Syria and Iraq for suspected links to ISIS.
Boudi has warned that there could be consequences for France.
"If France's involvement in the transfer (of French prisoners from Syria to Iraq) is documented, proved, France will be condemned in international and European courts," he said.
"France is a signatory of international conventions notably against the death penalty within the context of the Council of Europe, which means it doesn't have the right to transfer its citizens to a country where they practice torture or sentence people to death."
