Two Iraqi brothers Ammar and Yasser Amin They were sentenced to 16 and 10 years in prison respectively. War crimes and membership in the terrorist organization Daesh were proven.
By a decision of a panel of judges chaired by Alexandra Veiga, Ammar Amin was found guilty of membership in a terrorist organization, a war crime against the people and a threat crime, and Yasser Amin was found guilty of membership in a terrorist organization. , from the Lisbon Criminal Court
At issue were the defendants’ connections to Daesh (the Islamic State extremist group) and acts committed by the two Sunni Muslims while they were both living with their extended family in Mosul, one of many cities in Iraq that was occupied. at some point by this radical Islamic movement.
In the court’s closing arguments, the Prosecutor’s Office (PP) asked that the defendants be sentenced to a single statutory sentence approaching the maximum penalty of 25 years in prison.
The MP made the request given that Ammar is accused of joining a terrorist organization, nine war crimes against the people and the crime of resistance and coercion (against an official), while Yasser is facing trial for joining a terrorist organization. terrorist organization and eight war crimes against people.
In today’s ruling, the court dismissed virtually all of the war crimes charged in the indictment and replaced Ammar’s crime of resistance and coercion against an Aliens and Border Services officer with a threat offense punishable by a partial sentence of 16 months in prison.
Both brothers were also sentenced to the additional penalty of expulsion from Portugal. Lawyers must now challenge his execution because Portugal does not extradite defendants to countries that carry the death penalty, as Iraq does.
Reading out the decision, which took more than two hours, the panel of judges proved that the defendants had “sworn allegiance” to Daesh in 2014, a radical and brutal movement responsible for atrocities committed in Mosul such as beatings, torture, mutilation, sexual slavery, among other “large-scale crimes” and “shocking cruelty.”
The ruling, supported by documentary evidence and witness testimony (including future evidence), states that criminal information provided to the investigation by organizations associated with the United Nations (UN) was “fundamental to obtaining evidence against the accused.”
On the contrary, some witness testimony raised doubts in court, and in these situations the decision was made in favor of the defendants, who saw several war crimes committed against the people included in the indictments and indictments.
The court ordered Ammar to receive the harshest possible sentence (16 years), with the judge noting that the defendant had exhibited “aggressive or secretive behavior” either during his time at large in Portugal or during his trial without integrating into society.
The panel of judges also criticized Ammar’s “attitude” in the trial as he insisted that “it’s all a conspiracy” against him while showing no remorse.
The defendants maintain their innocence of the charges, and their lawyers Lopez Guerreiro and Vitor Parente Ribeiro have already expressed their intention to appeal this decision in the Lisbon court.
López Guerreiro told reporters that Ammar “didn’t believe in this trial in Portugal from the very beginning” and that he already understood that he would receive a harsh sentence.
Vítor Parente Ribeiro welcomed the fact that all war crimes against people attributed to Yasser had stopped and said there was “no evidence” to convict him of joining a terrorist organization, so he would appeal.
The lawyer criticized the defendants’ detention conditions, which he described as “worse than North Korea,” lamenting that both were prevented from communicating with their families in Iraq and were unable to call witnesses in Iraq in their defense. .
“This is regrettable and harmful to the defense,” said Vitor Parente Ribeiro, also believing that the situation described violates the rule of law and guarantees for the protection of the accused.
Arriving in Portugal in March 2017 from Greece as part of the European Union (EU) refugee resettlement programme, Ammar and Yasser have been in preventive detention since September 2021, when they were detained by judicial police.
The investigation, carried out by the Central Department of Investigation and Criminal Affairs, looked into the activities of the accused as members of the self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS) in the departments of Al-Hisbah (religious police) and Al-Amniyah (intelligence services) during the occupation. Iraq by this group, a terrorist organization, namely in the period from 2014 to 2016.
Author: João Carlos Rodrigues This Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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