A Swedish court has handed down a life sentence to a man for his involvement in the heinous killing of a Jordanian pilot by the Islamic State group in 2015, according to Swedish news outlets. The tragic event marked a notorious chapter in the extremist group’s history.
First Lieutenant Mu’ath al-Kaseasbeh, then just 26, was captured after his F-16 fighter jet went down near the de facto stronghold of IS in Raqqa, northern Syria. The militants’ gruesome execution involved trapping al-Kaseasbeh in a cage and setting it ablaze, a barbaric act that shocked the world.
The convicted individual, Osama Krayem, 32, was accused by Swedish authorities of having traveled to join IS forces in Syria in September 2014. Swedish prosecutors assert Krayem, armed and disguised, played a direct role in al-Kaseasbeh’s appalling death but retains the right to challenge his conviction.
In May, Krayem faced Swedish charges for grave war crimes and terrorist-related offenses committed in Syria. His criminal history includes convictions in France and Belgium for lethal attacks affiliated with the Islamic State.
Al-Kaseasbeh was the first international military aviator to be captured by IS since the launch of an aerial offensive by a U.S.-led coalition against the group. Attorney Mikael Westerlund, representing the pilot’s family, expressed satisfaction with the ruling, acknowledging it as a long-awaited step toward justice for al-Kaseasbeh.
The execution of the Jordanian pilot was seen as a move by IS to intimidate Jordan, a key ally in the coalition, into severing ties. A distressing video released by IS in 2015 depicted al-Kaseasbeh in an orange jumpsuit inside a cage, with a masked militant setting a fuel trail alight. The pilot appeared to have been physically abused, evident from injuries like a black eye.
The video, serving as propaganda, incited widespread outrage and spurred anti-IS protests across Jordan. In 2022, Krayem was among several men convicted by a specialized terrorism court in Paris for participating in a series of devastating IS attacks on locations such as the Bataclan theater, local cafés, and the national stadium. These assaults claimed 130 lives and left many others injured, in some cases, resulting in permanent disabilities.
Krayem received a 30-year sentence in France for his role, which included complicity in terrorist murder. Earlier, French authorities consented to hand him over to Sweden for further legal proceedings.
In 2023, Krayem was also condemned by a Belgian court to life imprisonment for terrorist murder related to the 2016 Brussels bombings. These attacks were Belgium’s most lethal peace-time atrocities, killing 32 and wounding hundreds at the airport and a bustling subway station.
Although Krayem was on a commuter train targeted in the Brussels attacks, he did not set off the explosives he had with him. Both the Paris and Brussels tragedies were orchestrated by the same IS network.