Some of them, two Iraqis and one Syrian, spoke to SKAI about what their own version is.
Seven members of ISIS are being held in prisons in Greece, with most of them accepting their membership in the organization, but maintaining that they were forced into it under threats and that they themselves have not participated in murders.
Some of them, two Iraqis and one Syrian, spoke to SKAI about what their own version is.
The Iraqi Ramadan Adnan was arrested in 2021 in an apartment in the center of Athens where he lived with his wife and three children, accused of participating in the Islamic State.
“They forced me, I had no other choice,” he says, stressing that he did not fight but served in a secret camp there
“They forced people and threatened to kill my family, what could I do?” he wonders.
The 35-year-old Adnan, like several other citizens of Iraq and Syria, was arrested in Greece on the charge that in the period 2014-2016 he fought in the ranks of ISIS jihadists.
His trial ended some twenty-four hours ago, with the court ruling that he participated in the organization, but not in the murders attributed to him.
“I never hurt anyone, I lived with my big family and I never hurt anyone” he declares.
The charges against him were made based on a video circulating on foreign news websites. He was sentenced to 9 years in prison.
“This video, if you see it, you immediately understand that it is a propaganda video, because it is not authentic. They took pictures from another place, from another time period. What is this; I am the victim in this video,” he summarizes.
“The accusations are weakened due to the fact that the cases are tried in Greece and describe real incidents of a war situation, of another country and ten years ago,” says his lawyer, Nikolas Aletras.
29-year-old Mazen Aleyada from Syria found himself in an even more unfavorable position.
He was arrested at Eleonas camp in June 2021 on the charge of participating in the massacre of civilians. He was sentenced to five life terms.
“I was here at the given time when they brought the people, the victims. I was already there, but as you can see from the videos, I neither held a weapon, nor did I use a weapon,” he says.
Mazen denies taking part in the killings and claims that he too was forced to flee his country after being hunted by the Islamic State.
“They slaughtered, decapitated some of my uncles and threatened to decapitate my brother, and because they were looking for me too for retaliation, I had to leave to escape” he describes, emphasizing that during the two months he participated in the Islamic State, he never got hold of a weapon, nor was he recruited as was done with the other members.
The videos of the atrocities that flooded the internet are what led to the heavy sentences.
“In order to be sentenced to, say, a life sentence or five times life imprisonment, you must have solid evidence and evidence for something that carries a life sentence,” observes Maria Ammari, defense attorney.
37-year-old Abdulsalam, originally from Raqqa, is accused of working for the ISIS fund.
“When I was caught and in court, I heard from the police that they have set me up as a collector,” he describes, explaining that a collector is a person who takes money and gives it to ISIS.
He was arrested on New Year’s Day 2022 in Omonia and in his trial that ended in June he was found not guilty beyond reasonable doubt.
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