The Berlin government still hasn’t found a solution to the issue of German citizen ISIS members captured alive by YPG/SDF forces during operations. In last February, US President Trump called on Western governments to “take back their citizens and put them on trial”, but the Federal German Government hasn’t moved a muscle, so to speak, for their citizens who have committed crimes against humanity.

Similarly, the families of ISIS members who are currently in camps in Northern Syria and Rojava Kurdistan were not accepted by Germany. But a local court handling the case of the wife and 3 children of an ISIS member issued a verdict that could serve as a precedent for many cases. The court ruled that the German citizen family must be brought back to Germany.

GERMANY MAY DEMAND THE FAMILY FROM SDF

The family from Lower Saxony with children aged 2, 7 and 8 are in the Hol Camp. Foreign Ministry officials said the court’s ruling is not final and there is no change in the family’s situation. If the verdict is finalized, the Foreign Ministry will need to contact SDF and bring the family back to Germany. This will be a first for the country.

There are some 200 German citizens held by the YPG, most of them women and children. Interior Minister Horst Seehofer had spoken about the German ISIS members and announced that the ministry was working meticulously on the matter. According to Seehofer and his team, the ISIS members could risk the country’s security after they are brought back.

Over 2800 ISIS members have been captured in YPG operations against ISIS in Northern Syria. 800 of them are citizens of 46 different states, most of them Western. To date, only France, Indonesia, Russia, Morocco and the Sudan have asked to take back their citizens from the Rojava administration.