A former resident of Luxembourg, Portuguese national Steve Duarte is currently imprisoned by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in northern Syria.
Duarte left Luxembourg for Syria in 2014, a journey taking him through Turkey before he arrived in the war-torn country. In February 2019, Duarte was taken into custody by Kurdish forces in Baghouz. His wife and two children are in a detention camp in Syria.
RTL journalist Petz Bartz travelled to Syria with a camera crew to interview Duarte and find out more about the suspected jihadist. Additionally, Bartz explored the topic of Luxembourg's legal system and policies. The above report and interview is in Luxembourgish, but has English subtitles.
To this date, Duarte denies having joined the Islamic State. Although a presumption of innocence should be maintained, Duarte has nevertheless entangled himself in contradictions and did not appear 100% truthful.
For reference, the interview adhered to the international convention of human rights and there was no lawyer present whilst Duarte answered questions. Two members of the Kurdish secret service were present as witnesses and also recorded the interview.
Bartz put the report together alongside the editorial team in Luxembourg, formed of Pierre Weimerskirch, Raphaëlle Dickes, and Jeannot Ries. Together, the team have attempted to put facts together to portray Duarte's life.
The Kurdish secret service agrees with their Portuguese counterparts and the Portuguese anti-terror unit, namely believing there is evidence that Duarte took part in an execution in Mosul, Iraq in January 2016. This may however be the only crime that the authorities can prove Duarte was complicit in. The Kurds will not take Duarte to trial, as their policy is only to try jihadists who are proven to have attacked the Kurdish people. However, if Duarte was extradited to Iraq - where his crime took place - he would face the death sentence.
Return to Luxembourg?
Given his connections to Luxembourg, the question is whether Duarte could face a return to the Grand Duchy. However, this is rather unlikely. Whilst he was born in Luxembourg in February 1987, he holds Portuguese citizenship. Further, according to jurisprudence, his residence status expired when he left the country.
Duarte does not have a lawyer to advise him in his fate. The autonomous Kurdish region in which Duarte is detained is not actually internationally acknowledged as a state. Consequently, the state does not have any legal negotiating partners for either the Luxembourgish or Portuguese governments. Incidentally, neither Luxembourg or Portugal has even expressed an interest in extraditing the suspected jihadist. Complicating matters is the fact that NATO partner Turkey views the Kurdish armed wing, the YPG, as a terrorist militia.
The SDF has placed more than 10,000 jihadists in prisons. A few hundred thousand women and children associated with the Islamic State are held in five detention camps spread throughout northeast Syria. Al-Hawl, one of the camps located at the border with Iraq, has quickly become a nursery for jihadism, added to the fact that the people detained there live in inhumane conditions. The Kurds are struggling to find a solution and the international community barely seems interested in finding one.
Whilst the collapsed caliphate may no longer comprise a cohesive territory, Islamic State jihadists remain a danger for the region, going far beyond the borders of Syria.
The journey to Syria
The above video details Bartz's time in Syria, which lasted a week, and the two months of preparations for the interview. Video in Luxembourgish.
