BAGHDAD, June 26 (Xinhua) -- The Iraqi Ministry of Justice said Saturday that the foreign militants of the Islamic State (IS) group who were convicted in Iraq will not be extradited to their countries until they serve their sentences in Iraqi prisons.
Ahmed Luaibi, spokesman of the ministry, told the official Iraqi News Agency that the militants arrested in accordance with the Iraqi anti-terrorism law will not be extradited, but ambassadors of their countries will be allowed to visit them in respect of human rights principles.
Luaibi said that there are no accurate statistics on IS foreign prisoners, stressing that there are a large number of them in the prisons of the Iraqi federal government and the prisons of the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan.
Thousands of foreign fighters joined the IS which established a self-proclaimed caliphate in parts of Iraq and Syria in 2014.
However, after the defeat of the IS in both countries, hundreds of IS loyalists were killed or captured.
The Iraqi judiciary has conducted trials for thousands of suspected IS militants including hundreds of foreigners.
