Baghdadi’s ex-wife handed over to Lebanon's General Security

BEIRUT: Lebanon's Military Court handed over the Iraqi ex-wife of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi to General Security Tuesday, along with her children and the wife of an ISIS commander.

According to judicial sources in the Military Court, Saja al-Dulaimi, the Iraqi ex-wife of Baghdadi, and Ola Mithqal al-Oqaily, the wife of ISIS commander Anas Sharkas, and both women’s children have been handed over to General Security after they were apprehended separately in recent weeks.

The decision came after preliminary investigations revealed that neither of the suspects had committed any crime in Lebanese territory.

Military Prosecutor Judge Saqr Saqr ordered Dulaimi, Oqaily and their children to be handed over to General Security, which will investigate the legality of their presence in Lebanon.

Oqaily and her children are being held for residing in Lebanon illegally and possessing forged identity papers, while Dulaimi and her children were detained last month on suspicion of collaborating with ISIS and trying to enter Lebanon using fake IDs.

Dulaimi first drew international attention in March when she was reported to be one of around 50 women released from prison by the Syrian government in return for the Nusra Front’s release of 13 nuns captured in the Christian Syrian town of Maaloula. At the time, she was reported to be Baghdadi’s wife due to comments by a Nusra Front commander, and several months later, pictures of a brown-eyed woman in a black headscarf emerged on the Internet purporting to be of the ISIS leader’s bride.

The Lebanese government has sought to use the two women as a negotiation card with militants who are holding 25 Lebanese servicemen captive.

The Muslim Scholars Committee, a gathering of Salafist sheikhs involved in negotiations with the kidnappers of the hostages, called Monday on the Lebanese government to release Dulaimi and Oqaily as a sign of good will in return for ending the threats to kill the captives.

The committee said it would take over mediation with the captors on the condition that it was formally commissioned by the government to manage talks, and that the stated showed willingness to engage in a swap deal that would involve the release of Islamist detainees held in Roumieh Prison.