Iraq says it will try foreign Islamic State members for millions of dollars

Iraq has offered to put hundreds of accused foreign jihadists on trial in Baghdad in exchange for millions of dollars, government sources said.

Western countries have been rocked by fierce debate over whether to repatriate their citizens who joined the Islamic State group over the past few months.

Prominent cases, such as that of Shamima Begum, have seen former Islamic State group members stripped of their citizenships.

Australia has even refused to repatriate orphaned children born to IS members.

Iraq has proposed trying and sentencing foreign IS-linked suspects if the US-led coalition agrees to cover operational costs, three Iraqi officials told AFP.

Around 1,000 suspected foreign IS fighters are in detention in northeast Syria, in addition to around 9,000 foreign women and children in camps there.

Iraq has already tried and sentenced hundreds of foreign IS members, and others are in detention in Baghdad awaiting trial. Among them are at least 12 French nationals who were transferred from Syria in February.

"These countries have a problem, here's a solution", one unnamed official said.

The source said Iraq had proposed a rate of $2 million per suspect per year, calculated based on the estimated operational costs of a detainee in Guantanamo.

"We made the proposal last week but have not gotten a response yet," the source added.

A second official said Iraq had requested $2 billion to try the suspects as "one of several options", and could ask for "more money to cover the costs of their detention".

Detainees from as many as 52 countries could be put on trial in Baghdad, a third official said.

"Iraq proposed to the coalition setting up a special tribunal to try foreigners. There's been a constructive beginning to those discussions," the source said.

Setting up such a court could be complicated, the official said, with with questions over whether international funding for it would prevent any implementation of the death penalty.

The source added that Iraq had opted to propose the arrangement to the US-led coalition as a whole because it was simpler than negotiating with each country individually.

The US-led coalition has not yet commented publicly on the proposal.

The Kurdish administration in northeast Syria has also called for an international court to try IS members, but the US has said countries should repatriate their own citizens.

Transferring foreign fighters to Iraq for trial appears to resolve a legal conundrum for Western powers, many of whom fear they may not have enough evidence to convict IS members who claim they did not fight.