The Stockholm District Court on Thursday sentenced Swedish national Osama K. to life in prison for his role in the 2015 murder of a Jordanian pilot who was burned alive by the “Islamic State” (IS) militant group in Syria.
K. was found guilty of participating in the execution by helping to force the pilot into a metal cage ahead of one of the militant group’s most infamous murders. The conviction is the first of anyone tried over the high-profile execution.
What did the Stockholm court say?
“The investigation has shown that the defendant was at the execution site, uniformed and armed, and allowed himself to be filmed,” Judge Anna Liljenberg Gullesjo said in a statement.
Though video evidence showed another man lighting the fire that killed the pilot, the judge said K.’s involvement was decisive: “Defendant’s actions contributed so significantly to the death of the victim that he should be considered a perpetrator.”
K., who was charged in May, is already serving sentences for his role in the 2015 Paris and 2016 Brussels terror attacks. He was convicted of “serious war crimes and terrorist crimes” for helping facilitate the execution, which was widely condemned at the time for its brutality.
The pilot had been captured by IS fighters after his Royal Jordanian Air Force plane went down in Syria on December 24, 2014. He was burned alive in a cage, with the video of the killing released publicly on February 3, 2015.
Liljenberg Gullesjo said K. was responsible for “guarding the victim both before and during the execution and taking him to the cage where he was set alight while still alive.”
Images of the death were disseminated online by the jihadi group.
The court also ordered compensation to be paid to the pilot’s parents and siblings, awarding 80,000 Swedish kronor (about €7,200 or $8,200) each.
What more do we know about the court case?
The 32-year-old Swedish citizen Osama K. comes from the Swedish city of Malmo.
Investigators were unable to work out the exact day of the murder, but the probe did identify the location where it took place.
The defendant’s lawyer, Petra Eklund, had argued that her client admitted to being present at the scene but disputed the allegation.
What were Osama K.’s other convictions?
K. joined IS in Syria in 2014 and later returned to Europe, prosecutors said. In 2022, he was sentenced in France to 30 years in prison for complicity in the November 2015 Paris attacks that left 130 dead.
In 2023, he was given a life sentence in Belgium for his role in the 2016 Brussels attacks that killed 32 people.
France agreed on March 12 to hand over K. to Sweden for nine months to allow for investigation and trial. He will be returned to France afterward to continue serving his sentence.
Editor’s note: In an effort to limit their exposure, Deutsche Welle has decided to withhold terror suspects’ names and obscure their faces.
Edited by Sean Sinico
