ISIS supports the harvesting of human organs from living captives to save Muslims’ lives — even if it costs the captives’ lives, according to a document obtained by US special forces.
The terror group’s Islamic scholars sanctioned the practice in a ruling that raises concerns that the extremists may be trafficking in body parts, Reuters reported.
The news agency could not independently confirm the authenticity of the Jan. 31, 2015, document, which US officials said was among items retrieved by the troops in a raid in eastern Syria in May.
“The apostate’s life and organs don’t have to be respected and may be taken with impunity,” reads the document, which is in the form of a fatwa, or religious ruling, from the ISIS’ Research and Fatwa Committee.
“Organs that end the captive’s life if removed: The removal of that type is also not prohibited,” Fatwa Number 68 says, according to a US government translation.
The document does not provide proof that the extremists actually engage in organ harvesting or trafficking, but it does sanction the activity under ISIS’ radical interpretation of Islam, Reuters reported.
The document also does not define “apostate,” though ISIS has killed or imprisoned non-Muslims and Muslims who don’t follow the group’s extremist views.
The fatwa justifies the practice in part by comparing it to cannibalism in extreme circumstances — a practice the group said Islamic scholars had previously allowed.
“A group of Islamic scholars have permitted, if necessary, one to kill the apostate in order to eat his flesh, which is part of benefiting from his body,” it says.
During the May raid, the elite troops grabbed a trove of computer drives, thumb drives, CDs, DVDs and papers, said Brett McGurk, President Obama’s special presidential envoy for the global coalition to counter ISIS, Reuters reported.
McGurk said the Research and Fatwa Committee reports directly to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
The raid also resulted in the death of ISIS’ top financial official Abu Sayyaf, a Tunisian militant, and his wife’s capture.
Iraq has previously accused the group of harvesting human organs and trafficking them for profit.
Ali Alhakim, Iraq’s ambassador to the UN, told Reuters the documents should be examined by the UN Security Council as evidence that ISIS may be trafficking in organs to raise cash.
In February, Alhakim claimed that 12 doctors in the ISIS-held city of Mosul were killed for refusing to remove organs. The UN’s special envoy for Iraq said at the time that he would investigate the claim, but no update has been provided.