The recent capture of the largest, so far, batch of Swedish jihadists in Syria has raised questions over their future, as the Nordic nation had previously emerged as one of Europe's foremost “jihadi exporters” per capita, yet has shown both surprising lenience toward homegrown terrorists and lack of desire to prosecute them.
As many as 41 Daesh terrorists linked to Sweden through either Swedish citizenship or residence permits in the Nordic country have been detained in Syria by Kurdish forces, the Swedish daily newspaper Expressen reported, describing the prisoners as the most hardened of their kind.
Five of those detained are reported to have held key positions within Daesh, with one permanently responsible for providing propaganda support for the terrorist movement.
“We treat them as prisoners, despite them being terrorists who have murdered innocent people,” a Kurdish source told Expressen.
The capture triggered a hot debate on whether Sweden should take back the terrorists and put them on trial “at home.”
During her recent visit to Stockholm, Nasrin Abdullah, the commander of YPJ, the female branch of the Kurdish YPG forces, appealed to Sweden to shoulder responsibility in bringing home its citizens and imprison them for the crimes they committed. She has also stressed the need for an ongoing dialogue between the Kurdish forces and the Swedish authorities.
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