Sweden tries ISIS member over Jordanian pilot burned to death in Syria

Lt Muath Al Kasasbeh was forced into a cage and set on fire, killing him on camera

Osama Krayem, left, and Muath Al Kasasbeh, who was murdered after being captured in late 2014. Alamy

A convicted Swedish extremist went on trial in Stockholm on Wednesday accused of war crimes for his role in the 2015 killing of a Jordanian pilot who was burnt alive in Syria.

The case is considered unique as the others involved in the killing, which sparked international outrage at the time, are presumed dead, the Swedish prosecutor Henrik Olin said as the trial began.

Osama Krayem, a 32-year-old Swede, is already serving long prison sentences for his roles in the Paris and Brussels attacks in 2015 and 2016. He now faces charges of "serious war crimes and terrorist crimes" for his alleged participation in the killing of the Jordanian pilot, Lt Muath Al Kasasbeh.

On December 24, 2014, an aircraft belonging to the Royal Jordanian Air Force crashed in Syria. Jordan was participating in the US-led coalition's strikes against ISIS positions in Syria.

Lt Al Kasasbeh was captured the same day by fighters from the ISIS group near the central city of Raqqa.

He was burnt alive in a cage sometime before February 3, 2015, when a video of the gruesome killing was published, according to the prosecution. The propaganda video was one of the first such videos released by ISIS.

"Osama Krayem, together and in agreement with other perpetrators belonging to ISIS, killed Muath Al Kasasbeh," the prosecutor Reena Devgun told the court on Wednesday.

"Osama Krayem, in uniform and armed, guarded and led the victim Muath Al Kasasbeh to a metal cage, where the latter was then locked up. One of the co-perpetrators then set fire to Muath Al Kasasbeh, who had no possibility to defend himself or call for help," Mr Devgun said.

A court sketch from a trial in Paris in 2015 shows Osama Krayem, who is accused of participating in the killing of a pilot in Syria. AFP

Krayem, wearing a dark blue shirt and with a thick beard and long, loose dark hair, had his back to the handful of spectators who followed Wednesday's proceedings behind a glass wall in the high-security courtroom in Stockholm's district court. He appeared calm as the prosecution laid out the charges, which could result in a life sentence if he is convicted.

In the 22-minute video of the killing, the victim is seen walking past several masked IS fighters, including Krayem, according to prosecutors. The pilot is then seen being locked in the cage and praying as he is set on fire. Prosecutors have been unable to determine the exact date of the murder but the investigation has identified the location.

It was thanks to a scar on the suspect's eyebrow, visible in the video and spotted by Belgian police, that Krayem was identified and the investigation was opened, Mr Devgun said when the charges were announced last week.

Other evidence in the case includes conversations on social media, including one in which Krayem asks a person if he has seen a new video "where a man gets fried", according to the investigation, a copy of which has been viewed by AFP.

The defendant's lawyer, Petra Eklund, told AFP before the start of the trial that her client admitted to being present at the scene but disputed the prosecution's version. "He denies the acts for which he is prosecuted," she said.

A vigil for Muath Al Kasasbeh in Jordan. Getty Images

Krayem, who is from Malmo in southern Sweden, joined ISIS in Syria in 2014 before returning to Europe in September 2015. He was arrested in Belgium in April 2016.

In June 2022, he was sentenced to 30 years in prison in France for helping plan the November 2015 Paris attacks in which 130 people were killed. The following year, he was given a life sentence in Belgium for participating in the March 2016 bombings at the main airport in Brussels and on the metro system, in which 32 people were killed.

Krayem has been temporarily handed over to Sweden for the Stockholm trial, which is scheduled to last until June 26.