Danish Justice Minister Soeren Pape Poulsen said Wednesday he would prefer for jihadists from his country to die fighting in Syria rather than return home, drawing criticism from the opposition.
With the collapse of the last bastion held by Daesh (ISIS) in Syria over the weekend, several governments have been grappling with the problem of what to do with captured jihadist fighters from their country.
Denmark's official policy to take back foreign fighters has generated public debate.
"It's better that they are jailed here (rather than) travelling freely," Pape Poulsen told a parliamentary committee on Wednesday, local papers reported.
But, he added, it would have been preferable "if they had fallen in combat over there."
The opposition Social Democrats criticised the minister's remarks.
"These are not words that I would have used," Trine Bramsen, a spokeswoman for the party said.
Pape Poulsen, who is also the leader of the Conservative Party, explained that there were around 40 jihadists with links to Denmark in what used to be Daesh territory in Syria, 10 of whom had been captured.
Since 2016, it has been a criminal offence in Danish law to have fought in conflict zones for a terrorist group.
The courts have already convicted 13 people for having joined or tried to join a terrorist organisation, Pape Poulsen told the committee.
Nine of those convicted were stripped of their Danish nationality and expelled from the country. The others could not be stripped of their citizenship as they did not hold dual nationality.
Syria's Kurds warned Sunday that the thousands of foreign jihadists they have detained are a time-bomb the international community urgently needs to defuse.
U.S.-backed forces in Syria called Monday for the establishment of an international court in the country to try suspected Daesh jihadists.
Associated Press
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