STOCKHOLM (Reuters) -Swedish prosecutors pressed charges on Tuesday against a man on suspicion of war crimes and terrorism over the murder of a Jordanian air force pilot who was burned to death in Syria a decade ago.
The Swede, named in court documents as Osama Krayem, 32, has previously been convicted of involvement in attacks in Paris in 2015 and in Brussels in 2016.
The Islamic State militant group, which once imposed a reign of terror over millions of people in Syria and Iraq, captured Jordanian pilot Muath al-Kasasbeh in December 2014 and later published a video of him being burned alive in a cage.
The Swedish Prosecution Authority charged Krayem with gross war crimes and terrorism, the indictment showed.
“Krayem, together with and in agreement with other perpetrators belonging to IS, killed/deprived Muath al-Kasasbeh of his life,” the authority said in the indictment.
It said Krayem had forced the pilot to the cage and that he also posed for a camera, knowing the footage would be dispersed as a manifestation of a plan and ideology advocated by Islamic State.
Krayem’s Swedish lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Krayem has been temporarily transferred to Sweden from France to stand trial at the Stockholm district court.
Islamic State controlled swathes of Iraq and Syria between 2014 and 2017, and was defeated in its last bastions in Syria in 2019.
Under Swedish legislation, courts can try people for crimes against international law committed abroad.
(Reporting by Anna Ringstrom, editing by Terje Solsvik and Bernadette Baum)
Comments