Iraq Demands Billions to Try European ISIS Fighters, Officials Say

According to Didier Reynders, the Belgian Minister of Foreign Affairs, his country’s position remains unchanged: the judgment of the fighters who have joined the ranks of the Islamic State will have to be pronounced as close as possible to the place where they committed their crimes.

In this sense, there has already been a technical meeting and another will be held in the next few days.

Even if Minister Reynders hinted that "Belgium has not made any commitment, whether for the payment of financial compensation or the financing of a detention center", some press reports indicate that Iraq would have asked for 2 million euros per year and per prisoner as well as the financing of the construction of a high-security prison.

For his part, Paul Van Tigchelt, the head of the Coordination and Threat Analysis Body (OCAM), is rather counting on the trial in Belgium of Belgian jihadists, especially those in camps in northeastern Syria.

However, their repatriation would be particularly complicated from Syria due to the absence of an official interlocutor on the spot, the same source notes.