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● Hammurabi Human Rights Organization shed light on the kidnappings and killings of Iraqi citizens from 01/10/2019 to 20/12/2019

 

  • Hammurabi Human Rights Organization shed light on the kidnappings and killings of Iraqi citizens from 01/10/2019 to 20/12/2019

 

  • With the continuing of demonstrations and sit-ins in Baghdad and in number of cities in central and southern Iraq, as the overall political landscape remains blurry and attempts to gain time that political authorities take part in, the kidnappings, arbitrary arrests and absenteeism remain one of the stigmas on the Iraqi public scene.

 

  • According to field information for Hammurabi Human Rights Organization, most of the kidnappings are carried out on the outskirts of the demonstration and sit-in squares and are carried out by influential parties through masked people and modern four-wheel drive vehicles where the people involved in the kidnapping take advantage of street intersections or their corners and sometimes to raid homes, and it appears according to information received by Hammurabi Human Rights Organization that kidnappings target citizens both male and female of the protest and sit-in movement who have taken the lead and are still at the forefront of the popular demands scene and have polarizing leadership capabilities.
  • According to information confired by official statements of the members of high commission of human rights in Iraq, that 29 activits were subjected to assassination attempts only 3of them survived such attempts, including the academic (Ihab al_wazni)  while 26 of them were killed in different and terrible ways. As 13 activists were assassinated in Baghdad including Dr.ali al-lami and others in others governorates that witnessed sit-ins and demonstrations including (Fahmal Taie) who was killed in karbala governorate.
  • According to information circulated on the sidelines of these kidnappings, and assassination attempts are made to discredit these people and spread rumors about them to cover up these crimes, and the trend may reach the fact that they are for criminal reasons,It is noticed that some of the arrests of activists are carried out in a kidnapping manner without the security authorities adopting the legal means that require detention issued by judicial investigators and there are accusations of committing violations or crimes, indicating that the kidnappings included women and men, that took place in all provinces that witnessed sit-ins and demonstrations without exception.

 

  • According to the information of Hammurabi Human Rights Organization that some of the kidnapped citizens were released in mysterious ways, and some of them are still under enforced disappearance, and we do not know any information that can be inferred from them, and according to other current information, that the months of October and November of 2019 were number of unidentified bodies were found, and forensic medicine departments in Baghdad and some provinces received corpses of this type, mostly for women.

 

  • To that, after the increase in kidnappings of human rights activists, documented information indicated that some of them left Iraq to neighboring countries for fear, and there is promotion of news about kidnappings that took place for activists, but confirmed that they were not subjected to any kidnapping, as these citizens themselves stated. Also, the information indicates that human rights activists were able to escape from kidnappings exposed to ambushes.

 

  • It is from information obtained by Hammurabi Human Rights Organization that more than (32) kidnappings were recorded according to what is circulated, but some of this information is not documented:

 

-Maitham El-Helou: was kidnapped on October 7 and released on 24th of the same month. He is a resident of Baghdad and a participant in the demonstrations.

 

- Seba al-Mahdawi: a medical student, who was kidnapped on November 2nd and released after ten days. She was known to provide first aid to the protesters in Tahrir Square, Baghdad.

 

-Mary Mohammed: kidnapped in November 2019 and released eleven days after her kidnapping, and said that she was investigated about her human rights activities and participation in the demonstrations in Baghdad.

 

-Omar Kathem Katee: One of the active demonstrators was kidnapped on November 20 and released on the 28th of the same month in Baghdad, he is one of the protesters in Tahrir Square.

 

-Abbas Yassin Kathem: a protester in Tahrir Square, and his fate is not known yet.

 

-Saif Mohsen Abdel-Hamid: His family lost contact with him on November 28, 2019, when he was in Tahrir Square and his fate is not known yet.

 

- Mustafa Munther Ali: kidnapped on 15th of November from outskirts of Tahrir Square and his family were contacted, as it was found that he was arrested by security services and imprisoned and that Hammurabi Human Rights Organization does not know whether he was released within (2700) detainees who were released by the government authorities.

 

-Sinan Adel Ibrahim: kidnapped in the fourth week of November 2019 as he was participating in the demonstrations of Tahrir Square and his fate is not known yet.

 

Conclusion:

Hammurabi Human Rights Organization considers that the continuation of kidnappings and absenteeism has become part of the general life scene in Iraq, especially in Baghdad and the rising provinces, and it also sees in the phenomenon a situation of unacceptable security chaos and that government institutions have to bear double responsibility in this regard, as they must to put an end to these operations if there are parties outside the government that carry out these operations, but if there are security forces implementing them, then the government’s human rights side must expedite the news of the families of the kidnapped people that are in detention and apply to them the human rights that should be provided to the detainees and the reasons for their detention and bring them to justice if they require specific charges of trial.