Islamic State’s human organ harvesting is sanctioned by a fatwa issued last January, when the group’s Islamic scholars explained that internals of ‘apostates’ could be extracted from their bodies for the needs of Muslims, even if the ‘donors’ die.
A document obtained by Reuters reveals that organs harvesting is charitable deed by codes of Islamic State (IS, former ISIS/ISIL), maintains IS’ Research and Fatwa Committee.
“The apostate's life and organs don't have to be respected and may be taken with impunity,” says Fatwa (religious ruling) #68 issued January 31, 2015. “The notion that transplanting healthy organs into a Muslim person’s body in order to save the latter's life or replace a damaged organ with it is permissible,” the document says, specifying that removal of organs that “end the captive's life” is also not prohibited.
The Fatwa #68 was reportedly found in a trove of other Islamic State’s documents obtained by the US special forces as a result of raid into eastern Syria in May. Reuters could not independently confirm the authenticity of the document.
The data retrieved in May has been compiled into ‘Lessons Learned From the Abu Sayyaf Raid’ package exposing IS of justifying practices punishable elsewhere in the world, the human organs trafficking being just one of them.
The raid in May that resulted in killing Abu Sayyaf, IS’s top financial official, brought the US seven terabytes of data from terrorist’s computer hard drives, thumb drives, CDs, DVDs and papers, Reuters cited Brett McGurk, the US president's special envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL.
In February this year, Iraq’s ambassador to the United Nations, Mohamed Alhakim, called on the 15-member UN Security Council to look at allegations of organ removal by the IS, urging the UNSC to investigate the issue.
He informed that bodies with surgical incisions and missing kidneys had been discovered in shallow mass graves on Iraqi territory.
“We have bodies. Come and examine them,” Alhakim said. "It is clear they are missing certain parts."
He also said several doctors had been executed in Mosul for refusing to participate in organ harvesting.
READ MORE: ISIS ‘organ harvesting’ must be probed by Security Council – Iraqi envoy
In August the Washington-based Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) reported of French-speaking IS militants openly discussing harvesting human organs from sex slaves on social media back in September 2014.
READ MORE: ‘Spare parts’: ISIS fighters discuss prices of human organs on social media
The fatwa obtained by Reuters does not define who could be attributed as ‘Kafir’ (disbeliever in Islam), but enslaving of minorities practicing other religions on the territories controlled by IS is a well-established fact. Thousands of Iraqi women have already been forced into sex slavery, with as many as 3,000 women and girls having been taken captive only from the Yazidi tribe in Iraq during IS offensives across the region.
READ MORE: ISIS releases horrifying sex slave pamphlet, justifies child rape
IS has issued a number of fatwas, providing legal justification to a range of criminal and openly barbaric practices.
For example Fatwa #64 issued on January 29, 2015, presents regulations for rape, explaining in detail when and how Islamic State militants should have sexual intercourse with female slaves.
IS even has a fatwa justifying cannibalism in extreme circumstances.
“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,” the regulation says.