ISIS Swede convicted for role in 2015 killing of Jordanian pilot

Osama Krayem was described by prosecutors in an earlier case as unrepentant

Osama Krayem, left, forced captured Jordanian pilot First Lt Muath Al Kasasbeh into a cage. Alamy

A Swedish man was convicted and sentenced to life in prison on Thursday for his role in the 2015 killing of a Jordanian pilot by ISIS, Swedish media reported.

The 26-year-old Jordanian, First Lt Muath Al Kasasbeh, was taken captive after his F-16 fighter jet crashed near the extremists' de facto capital of Raqqa in northern Syria. He was put in a cage that was then set on fire in early 2015.

Swedish prosecutors said Osama Krayem, 32, travelled to Syria in September 2014 to fight for ISIS.

Armed and masked, Krayem was among those who forced Lt Al Kasasbeh into the cage, the court heard. The pilot died when the cage was set ablaze.

Krayem, who was born in Sweden to a Palestinian mother and a Syrian father, was sentenced to life in prison on Thursday, Swedish news agency TT reported. He was indicted by Swedish prosecutors in May on suspicion of committing serious war crimes and terrorist crimes in Syria.

He was previously convicted in France and Brussels for deadly ISIS attacks in those countries. Prosecutors in Belgium had described him as unrepentant.

The airman became the first known foreign military pilot to fall into the militants' hands after the US-led international coalition began its aerial campaign against ISIS in Syria and Iraq in 2014.

A court sketch depicting Osama Krayem during his 2021 trial over the November 2015 ISIS attacks against France. AFP

Jordan, a close US ally, was a member of the coalition and the pilot’s killing appeared aimed at pressuring the government of Jordan to leave the alliance.

In a 20-minute video released in 2015, purportedly showing the killing of Lt Al Kasasbeh, he displayed signs of having been beaten. He was shown wearing an orange jumpsuit and standing in a cage outdoors as a masked militant ignites a line of fuel leading to it.

The footage, widely released as part of the militant group’s propaganda, sparked outrage and demonstrations in Jordan.

In 2022, Krayem was among 20 men convicted by a special terrorism court in Paris for involvement in a wave of ISIS attacks in the French capital in 2015, targeting the Bataclan theatre, Paris cafes and the Stade de France. The assaults killed 130 people and injured hundreds.

Krayem was sentenced to 30 years in prison, for charges including complicity to terrorist murder. French media reported that France agreed in March to turn Krayem over to Sweden for the investigation and trial.

In 2023, a Belgian court sentenced Krayem, among others, to life in prison on charges of terrorist murder in connection with 2016 suicide bombings that killed 32 people and wounded hundreds at Brussels Airport and a busy subway station in the country's deadliest peacetime attack.

Krayem was aboard the commuter train that was hit, but did not detonate the explosives he was carrying.

Both the Paris and Brussels attacks were linked to the same ISIS network.

Jordanian government spokesman Mohammad Al Momani said Amman welcomes the sentencing, and had provided “all facilitation and necessary co-operation” with the Swedish judiciary.

“This despicable crime will remain present in the conscious of Jordanians,” Mr Al Momani said. “The verdict is an important step toward achieving justice and persecuting everyone who had a role in this ugly crime.”