This is part two of the Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR)’s Ninth Periodic Report on Violations During Popular Demonstrations in Iraq. The focus is on the killing, kidnapping and attacks on civil society activists.

Killing of civil society activists

On 06 November 2020, civil society activist Omar Fadel (photo 1) was killed after an armed force attacked a number of demonstrators who wanted to return to the main sit-in square in Basra. He had nothing in his pocket but his mobile phone, a tissue, and 11,000 dinars (eight dollars) (photo 2). Before his murder, he appeared in a video calling on fellow protesters to be honest in their slogans. Hundreds of people participated in his funeral, which took place in Al-Zubair district, in west Basra Governorate (photo 3). The picture above shows a little Basri girl who, on 07 November 2020, lights a candle in the place where he was killed (phot 4). The sit-in squares celebrated him, including in Al-Haboubi Square, where protesters held a symbolic funeral for him (photo 5). When he posted a photo on his Instagram page of himself in Al-Tahrir Square on 01 January 2020, he wrote, “In the first moments of the new year, I renew my love for Iraq and nothing but Iraq.”

In a statement on 07 November 2020, the Ministry of the Interior announced that: “The security forces, in their efforts to uncover the circumstances of the killing of a demonstrator in Basra Governorate during the demonstrations in the Bahriya Square on Friday, arrested the killer who openly confessed to his crime. Initial investigations have been made with him in preparation for referring him to the judiciary to obtain his fair penalty.” The Director of the Department of Relations and Information at the Ministry of the Interior, Major General Saad Maan, announced that the killer of the demonstrator, Omar Fadel, was an officer with the rank of captain affiliated with the Basra Governorate Police Command.

On 06 November 2020, civil society activist Ghazi Abu Mohammed (photo on the left), in charge of the retirement tent in Al-Tahrir Square in Baghdad, was subjected to an assassination attempt that resulted in severe injuries. He was transferred to hospital for treatment. Eyewitnesses stated that unidentified gunmen driving in a car shot him with a silencer weapon while he was traveling in his private car on Muhammad Al-Qasim Road after leaving Al-Tahrir Square.

On 01 November 2020, unknown gunmen on a motorbike assassinated civil society activist Sheikh Abdel Nasser Al-Tarfi Al-Tai (photo in the middle) in Abu Rummaneh in the city of Al-Amara, who was shot when he left his home in the morning. Al-Tarfi is known for his support for the popular movement and participated in demonstrations in the city of Amara. He has published several videos on his Facebook page and YouTube page in which he explained his views and full support for the demonstrators and his strong opposition to the armed militias.

On 26 October 2020, Anti-Riot Forces tried to storm Al-Tahrir Square from Al-Rasheed Street, using live bullets and smoke bombs. When they entered Al-Khiam Street adjacent to Al-Tahrir Square, they shot paramedic and peaceful demonstrator Mortada Al-Gharib (picture on the right), a 20-year-old from Babil Governorate, with a fatal bullet in his chest. Upon reaching his body, which was lying on the ground, they punched him several times, even though he was motionless. Al-Gharib, who was unemployed, was one of the permanent members of the Al-Tahrir Square sit-in group. His colleagues were dismantling their tent under the Al-Tahrir Square monument and he was about to leave, but he went to explore the situation of his colleagues, who were attacked by the Anti-Riot Forces when he was killed.

Targeting of woman human rights defender

On 03 November 2020, civil society activist Mary Mohammed talked in a video about another abusive video published the day before on social media sites. She explained that she was forced at gunpoint to record the video while she was kidnapped by an unknown armed group after leaving Al-Tahrir Square on 08 November 2019. She was not released until 11 days later, on 19 November 2019. Offensive videos are one of the methods used by armed militias to tarnish the image of civil society activists participating in the popular movement. The sit-in squares declared their solidarity with her, including in Al-Haboubi Square (photo on the right).

Targeting of protesters and peaceful demonstrations

On the morning of18 October 2020, Maysan Governorate police arrested 200 engineering graduates who were demonstrating in front of the Maysan Oil Company gate to demand their rights to get jobs, and beat a number of them. They were all released after several hours in detention.

 

On 22 October 2020, peaceful demonstrator Zayn Al-Abidin Ahmed was released after the competent court issued a verdict acquitting him of malicious charges brought against him, including his alleged burning of a building near Al-Ahrar Bridge. He was arrested near the bridge in November 2019, and detained for 11 months pending investigation. There are allegations that he was tortured during that period.

Kidnapping and enforced disappearance of civil society activists

 

Civil society activist Sajjad Al-Iraqi (Al-Mushrifawi) is still being held by his captors in an unknown location, despite the authorities pledging to free him. Al-Iraqi was kidnapped on 19 September 2020, by seven armed people, traveling in two white Toyota pickups, with unknown numbers, in Al Azirj area on the outskirts of Nasiriyah. On 01 October 2020, during the demonstrations and rallies that took place in Al-Haboubi Square in the city of Nasiriyah, his picture was raised (photo 1) and a request was made for his release and the arrest of his kidnappers who were identified by the security forces but failed to find him despite the visit by Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi to Nasiriyah and sending a unit from the Anti-Terrorism Force which searched the Sayed Dakhil area, to which he was transferred, according to eyewitnesses.   

Human rights lawyer Ali Jaseb Hattab Al-Heliji is still being kidnapped in an unknown location, despite the security forces ’knowledge of the party that kidnapped him, which took place in the city Al- Amara on 07 October 2019. A baby was born to him during his absence and his father said (photo 2),“ My only hope in the demonstrators to raise my son’s picture on 25 October, after despairing of the government, the judiciary, and all those I appealed to.” On 19 October 2020, a number of protesters in Basra printed a photo of Al-Hiliji for distribution in the demonstrations on 25 October, in response to his father’s request, and other sit-in squares also did so.  

On 24 October 2020, online activist Susan Romeo, the sister of civil society activist Abdualmasih Romeo Jean Sarkis (photo 3), posted on her Twitter account the following, “I am the sister of the peaceful demonstrator Abd al-Masih Romeo who was kidnapped and arrested on 01 March 2020 during peaceful demonstrations. I demand his release. “

On 12 October 2020, the paramedic and civil society activist Ghaith Al-Karbalai (photo 4) was kidnapped by an armed militia from Al-Rasheed Street near Al-Tahrir Square. He participated in the popular movement from its inception and within the Voice of Youth tent in Al-Tahrir Square. Released on 19 October 2020.

On 15 October 2020, an armed militia kidnapped civil society activist Abbas Fadel (Abu Asad) (photo 5) and released him the next day after they tortured him and shaved his hair as he got also dislocated on his shoulder (photo 6).

Targeting of civil society activists

 

On 25 September 2020, at 7:15 p.m., the home of prominent human rights lawyer Hussain Al-Gharabi was blown up with an explosive device, damaging the exterior fence of the house and the main door, shattering the glass, but causing no injuries. Al-Gharabi is a prominent activist and an effective contributor to the protests in Nasiriyah. On 22 September  2020, he appeared in a TV interview, in which he accused armed militias of kidnapping his fellow activist, Sajjad Al-Iraqi. On 26 September 2020, he appeared in another interview in which he talked about the bombing of his house, describing the incident as “the systematic and continuous targeting of activists and demonstrators in Dhi Qar Governorate.” On 27 September 2020, he wrote on his Facebook page, which he uses in support of the popular movement and against corruption, the following: “Certainly we will continue the path of protest and the October Revolution until the country is recovered from its captors (the parties of opportunity and ruin).” Before the bombing, he published on the same page above the photo of Al-Iraqi, “2020 is different from 2018, so do not expect that we will remain silent about the fate of Sajjad, and the coming days will prove to you, freedom for kidnapped Sajjad Al-Iraqi.”

On 24 October 2020, the home of civil society activist Jassim Al-Amiri, located in the Qibla region, west of Basra, was blown up by a sound device, causing material damage to his house. He left his home and stayed in the main square of the sit-in, which has been subjected to a campaign of repression since 31 October 2020 and is still continuing. In a TV interview he said that the attackers wanted him to stop attending the sit-in square in Basra but, encouraged by his family, he insisted on joining the square and the protests immediately.

 

Targeting of freedom of expression and threatening of journalists

 

On 05 November 2020, the Presidency of the Nineveh Federal Court of Appeal in Mosul issued arrest warrants against four civil society activists in the Governorate of Nineveh, namely Rayan Jasim Mohammed, Sahar Mohammaed Mustafa, Mohannad Qasim Ismail and Saqr Maan Abdulqadir Al Zakaria (from right to left), on charges of issuing personal threats under Article 430 of the Iraqi Penal Code, after a lawsuit was filed against them by the Director General of Nineveh’s Health Department, Falah Al-Tai. Al Zakaria said in a press statement, “This is a false and malicious charge that I cannot accept, as a person who believes in freedom of expression, knowing that I have not met him and I have no relationship with him, and all that links me to him is that I, as a citizen, have criticised the services and the reality of health conditions.”

On 11 October 2020, human rights defender Hamad Al-Sayed Al-Sumaidaie was arrested after he criticised the director of the Dhuluiya sub-district in Salah Al-Din Governorate on his Facebook page for firing a poor worker and appointing his brother to replace him. Al-Sumaida’I works as a director of the Salah Al-Din volunteer team, and as a representative of the Al-Rakisa Foundation for Relief and Development in Salah Al-Din Governorate, and he is well-known for exerting his efforts to help citizens in Saladin, Diyala, Nineveh, and Anbar Governorates. He was released on 13 November 2020.  

 

As previously reported by GCHR, on 31 August 2020, a group of people broke into and burned the headquarters of the Dijlah satellite channel in the capital, Baghdad. The repeated and continuous threats by armed militias forced several journalists to leave their cities, but they are still continuing their journalistic work from a safe place. They include Karar Mohammed Abd Ali Al-Assaf, the field correspondent for the Dijlah channel in the Governorate of Najaf, Mohammed Hassan Kazem, a photojournalist for the Dijlah channel in Al-Diwaniyah Governorate, Zaid Ali Jawad Al-Fatlawi, a journalist and field reporter for the Dijlah channel in the Governorate of Diwaniyah, and Ali Mohammed Abdulalreda, the Dijlah channel correspondent in the Wasit Governorate (from right to left).

Recommendations

Once again, the Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR) condemns in the strongest terms the excessive use of force, including live bullets, by the Iraqi security forces, and demands that they fulfil their international obligations affirmed by the Iraqi constitution to protect the right of its citizens to life, as well as all other human rights, in particular the freedom to demonstrate peacefully, freedom of expression, and freedom of the press. The Iraqi government must stop all forms of violence immediately and without any conditions, as well as protect the peaceful demonstrators and stop all attacks on the sit-in squares throughout the country.

The Iraqi government should immediately conduct independent, impartial and comprehensive investigations into the killings of protesters, with the aim of publishing the results and bringing all those responsible to justice in accordance with international standards and procedures.

In light of the gravity of the human rights situation, we also ask the United Nations Human Rights Council to hold a special session to investigate human rights violations in Iraq and take the necessary measures to ensure that the Iraqi government stops using excessive force in all its forms against peaceful protesters and activists throughout the country.