Kurdish Forces In Northeast Syria Bribed To Free IS-Linked Inmates From Prisons - Reports

Kurdish Forces in Northeast Syria Bribed to Free IS-Linked Inmates From Prisons - Reports

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) managing prisons in the country's northeast are freeing inmates suspected of being affiliated with the Islamic State (IS, a terrorist group, banned in Russia) for bribes, the Guardian newspaper reported on Monday, citing relevant documents and sources

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 22nd November, 2021) The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) managing prisons in the country's northeast are freeing inmates suspected of being affiliated with the Islamic State (IS, a terrorist group, banned in Russia) for bribes, the Guardian newspaper reported on Monday, citing relevant documents and sources.

According to the documents, Syrians jailed without trial are eligible for release in exchange for an $8,000 payment and signing a pledge to remain out of any armed groups and to leave Syria's northeast, partly controlled by the SDF.

"The release process wasn't easy, but after contacting many SDF leaders my family was able to get me out of jail after paying $14,000 in bribes in addition to the official $8,000 to the SDF's public finance department," a former prisoner told the newspaper.

He was reportedly an IS militant who was arrested in 2019, joining around 10,000 other prisoners in SFD-controlled prisons, and released in early 2021. According to him, these prisons practice torture and mistreatment, something denied by SDF.

However, the former prisoner does not consider himself a victim, as he did the same to other people when he was an IS member.

Another source of the newspaper claims that he paid an official $8,000 in addition to $22,000 in bribes to several SDF officials. The man was freed in March and moved with his family to Turkey where he believes he is being monitored by the authorities.

Both former prisoners said that at least 10 people they knew from prison were released the same way, while the exact number of those released via this scheme remains unclear. SDF, for their part, denied that such a practice goes at their detention facilities.

In September, Bassam Saker, Syrian Democratic Council Representative in the United States, told Sputnik that SDF-managed prisons still host around 5,000 foreign terrorists, since no country wants to take them back. The number has not changed for many months.

The armed conflict in Syria has been going on since 2011. In late 2017, IS was declared defeated in Syria and Iraq, but counterterrorism operations are ongoing.�