A jihadist judged in Sweden for the assassination of a Jordanian pilot burned alive – Liberation
He was one of the main accused of the trial of the attacks of November 13. Osama Krayem, 32, Swedish jihadist sentenced to thirty years of criminal imprisonment by the Paris Special Assize Court, in June 2022, after nine months of audience during which He never got out of his silencewill now be tried in Sweden. He appears from this Tuesday, June 4 for his presumed participation in the assassination of a bright Jordanian pilot in a cage in Syria.
It is the first and only trial of a suspect in the assassination of the Jordanian pilot, a barbaric act that had caused An international outcry in 2015underlined the Swedish prosecutor’s office. The death of this pilot had stunned Jordan, which participated in the strikes of the international coalition led by the United States against the positions of the Jihadist Islamic State (IS) organization in Syria.
« Osama Krayem, in concert and in agreement with other co-authors of the Islamic State, killed Maaz al-Kassasbeh. In this context, Osama Krayem, in uniform and armed, kept and escorted the victim, Maaz al-Kassasbeh, up to a metal cage, where he was then locked up. Subsequently, one of the co-authors set fire to Maaz al-Kassasbeh, who then had no way of defending or calling for help ”, said the prosecutor, Reena Devgun, at the opening of the jihadist trial in Stockholm.
The hearing is held in a secure, sparse room. Osama Krayem is thus tried for « Aggravated war crimes and terrorist crimes ». Sitting with his back turned at the hearing, it seems calm, dropped black hair and beard supplied, dressed in a dark blue jacket. An attitude that echoes the one he already displayed During his trial in Paris, where he had many times refused to appear.
On December 24, 2014, a plane belonging to the Jordanian Air Force had been shot in Syria, near Raqqa, and the pilot had been captured by the Islamic State organization on the same day. The assassination had been filmed and then broadcast on February 3, 2015 in the form of a twenty-two-minute video, accompanied by a nachîd (Muslim religious song) specially composed.
The date of execution could not be determined, but the investigation made it possible to identify the exact location it took place. The other jihadists present on the video are presumed dead. It is thanks to a first evidence, a scarcity in the eyebrow identified by the Belgian police on the video, that Osama Krayem could be identified and that this investigation could be opened, explained the prosecutor.
Other evidence are Facebook conversations, in which the accused asks a loved one if he has seen a new video « Where a man gets toast »according to the preliminary survey consulted by AFP. « I am in the video »said Krayem, specifying the moment when the image zooms in on his face. His close replied: « Hahaha, yes, yes I saw the eyebrow! » Petra Eklund, the lawyer for the accused, told AFP that his client acknowledges having been present on the scene, but challenges the prosecutors: prosecutors: « He denies the facts as presented by the prosecution, and claims to have acted in the way that is criticized for him. »
Osama Krayem, originally from Malmö, in the south of Sweden, joined the IS in Syria in 2014, before returning to Europe in September of the following year. He was arrested in Belgium in April 2016. In June 2022, he was sentenced to thirty years in prison – including two thirds of security – in France for complicity in the Paris and Saint -Denis attacks of November 13, 2015, which left 130 people. The following year, he was sentenced to life imprisonment in Belgium for his participation in March 22, 2016 attacks in the main Brussels airport and the metro, which left 32 dead.
France agreed on March 12 to give it for nine months to Sweden, during the investigation and judgment for the assassination of the Jordanian pilot. He will then be returned to France to serve his sentence. The trial is expected to end on June 26.
