Bureaucracy to brutality: New evidence reveals ISIS hierarchy

Documents reveal how ISIS used one of its most powerful bureaucratic bodies to regulate daily life and execute penalties.

Islamic State militants in 2015 prepare to kill three men accused of being gay in Raqqa city, Syria. Picture: AP

Documents compiled by a US-based Syrian rights group reveal how Islamic State militants used one of their most powerful bureaucratic bodies to regulate daily life and impose and execute penalties.

The new evidence could be used in international prosecutions. The Washington-based Syria Justice and Accountability Centre said on Friday the evidence — documents produced by ISIS itself — could help identify individuals responsible for atrocities during the militants’ four-year reign of terror and lead to criminal prosecutions.

The 24-page report — Judge, Jury and Executioner — is based on dozens of documents obtained by the SJAC from inside Syria and collected by a local activist from abandoned ISIS offices in Raqqa province, where the militants had their self-declared capital in the city of the same name.

Dozens of documents showed that the Bureau of Justice and Grievances had a much more expansive role than the militant group had revealed. While Islamic State portrayed it as a body that investigated complaints against its own members and held them accountable, the investigation showed that it had a more integral role in sentencing and executing penalties, issuing arrest warrants and death and marriage certificates, and regulating daily life, including technology use, in terri­tories controlled by Islamic State.

SJAC executive director Mohammad al-Abdallah said the report explained the internal dynamics among the different branches of Islamic State and how decisions were made — an important tool for prosecutors investigating the militant group that can help establish chain of command.

Such an internal picture could help prosecutors move beyond pursuing terrorism-­related charges by establishing responsibility for war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity, he said.

The SJAC has already compiled at least nine names of Islamic State judges and prosecutors based on the documents.

Even though the real identity of those named may need more than the documents to establish, such as photographs, witness testimonies and prison records, Mr Abdallah said his centre’s project was only starting. Thousands more documents and videos were available to the SJAC and its researchers planned to go through them all.

“We will start matching videos to documents basically and mapping out identities,” he said.

The report also focused on the non-combatant side of Islamic State who were key in planning and ordering crimes.

Thousands of Islamic State militants are in prisons in Syria and Iraq, including hundreds of Europeans. Their fate has triggered a debate in many European countries, many of which have declined to repatriate nationals citing security concerns.

AP