Swedish Man Sentenced to Life for Role in Pilot’s Death

STOCKHOLM (AP) — A Swedish man has been sentenced to life in prison for his involvement in the 2015 murder of a Jordanian pilot by an Islamic State militant group, according to reports from Swedish media.

The pilot, Moaz al-Kasasbeh, was a 26-year-old Jordanian who was captured after his F-16 jet went down near Raqqa, the unofficial capital of northern Syria. He was subjected to horrific conditions, being placed inside a cage that was set on fire in early 2015.

The individual convicted, identified by Swedish prosecutors as 32-year-old Osama Krayem, allegedly traveled to Syria in September 2014 to join the fight with ISIS.

Prosecutors stated that Krayem, armed and masked, was among those who forced Al-Kasasbeh into the burning cage. The pilot succumbed to the flames.

Krayem was sentenced on Thursday, as reported by the Swedish news agency TT. He faced charges this past May that included serious war crimes and acts of terrorism in Syria.

This isn’t his first conviction; he has previously been found guilty of participating in deadly Islamic State attacks in France and Brussels.

After the U.S.-led coalition began airstrikes against ISIS in Syria and Iraq in 2014, Al-Kasasbeh became one of the first prominent foreign military pilots to be captured by extremists.

Jordan, aligned closely with the United States and part of the coalition, appeared to be pressured by the killing to reconsider its involvement.

A notorious 20-minute video released in 2015 depicted Al-Kasasbeh’s murder, showing him beaten, wearing an orange jumpsuit, and confined in an outdoor cage alongside a masked militant.

This portrayal incited widespread outrage and sparked anti-ISIS protests in Jordan.

In 2022, Krayem was one of 20 men convicted in a special terrorist court in Paris for his participation in the Islamic State attacks in the city in 2015, which targeted locations like the Bataclan Theatre and the National Stadium, resulting in 130 deaths and hundreds of injuries.

He was given a 30-year prison sentence for his role in these violent acts. Reports indicate that France agreed in March to extradite Krayem to Sweden for investigation and trial.

In 2023, a Belgian court also sentenced Krayem to prison for his involvement in a terrorism-related murder connected to a 2016 suicide bombing at Brussels airport, which claimed 32 lives and injured many more.

Although he was on the train that day, he did not detonate the explosives he carried. The same network of Islamic State operatives was responsible for both the Paris and Brussels attacks.