The background is an event that took place on Christmas Eve 2014, when a Jordanian air force plane was shot down in Syria. The pilot was captured the same day by the Islamic State, IS, outside Raqqa in Syria.
The pilot, First Lieutenant Mu’adh al-Kasasiba, was locked in a metal cage and one of the accomplices then set fire to the cage. The pilot had no opportunity to defend himself or seek help and died as a result of the fire, according to the prosecutor. The event was also filmed, and the film was widely spread as part of IS propaganda.
"Extremely cruel act"
The Swedish citizen Osama Krayem is now being requested to be detained for "together and in agreement with other perpetrators" belonging to IS having executed the pilot. The suspicions concern gross war crimes and terrorist offenses.
"IS has acted as an armed group in the war in Syria as a terrorist organization. The pilot was put out of action and has been subjected to an extremely cruel act contrary to the laws of war. The fact that the execution was then filmed and that the film was spread is a further violation of his person," says senior prosecutor Reena Devgun in a comment.
"It's a brutal film where the pilot was used as a tool in IS propaganda machinery," the prosecutor says further.
The video showing the pilot's death was met with disgust in Jordan when it was spread in 2015, and led the country to step up its efforts against IS.
No one else has previously been brought to trial for the act, and now that Osama Krayem is being requested to be detained, it is the first case where someone can be prosecuted for the event.
Previously convicted of terrorism
Krayem has previously been convicted to long prison sentences in both France and Belgium for terrorist offenses. In July 2023, he was sentenced to life imprisonment by a Belgian court for, among other things, terrorist murder for his role in the terrorist attacks in Brussels 2016.
32 people were killed when Islamist suicide bombers carried out attacks on Zaventem airport and the Maelbeek metro station on March 22, 2016.
In 2022, Krayem was also sentenced to 30 years in prison for participating in the terrorist attacks in Paris 2015. He was prosecuted for providing the attackers with weapons and logistical support.
The terrorist attacks in Paris in November 2015 are the worst in the country's history during peacetime. 130 people were murdered in several attacks, including outside the Stade de France football arena and the Bataclan concert hall.
Osama Krayem will be requested to be extradited from France to participate in a potential trial in Sweden.
