An Iraqi court has sentenced a young activist to three years in prison on charges of insulting the pro-Iranian paramilitary group Khachd al-Chaabi, Human Rights Watch said Wednesday.
For a Washington-based human rights group, this case demonstrates the instrumentalization of Iraqi justice in the face of peaceful dissent.
Agence France Press has seen a copy of the verdict handed down on Monday by a court in Baghdad to 20-year-old activist Haidar al-Zaidi.
Al-Zaidi was indicted and tried after he allegedly posted a text via the social network Twitter in which he criticized Abu Mehdi al-Muhandis, the former number two in the Khach al-Shaabi militia, who died in January 2020 during the same northern attacks. The American who shot Iranian General Qasem Soleimani at Baghdad airport.
The text circulated on the social network was distributed to members of Khach al-Shaabi.
On Sunday, the day before the court’s verdict, the defendant posted a text on the Facebook digital platform stating that for the judges, any comment about pro-Iranian militias in Iraq is tantamount to “insulting state institutions.” called for a show of solidarity before the court.
Al-Zaidi recalled on Sunday that he had already been arrested in June and then released on bail.
However, the young man, like his father, denied authorship of the message circulated by Twitter, claiming that the social media account was the target of a computer attack, Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported Wednesday in a statement.
“Whoever is spreading the message, the Iraqi justice system should not be used as a means of reprisal for peaceful criticism of the authorities or armed groups in the country,” adds HRW.
The paramilitary forces of the pro-Iranian group Hahd al-Shaabi, integrated into the regular forces of Iraq, can still demand financial compensation from the convicted young man.
In June, the United Nations mission in Iraq deplored the “climate of fear and intimidation”, citing several “incidents” that were “aimed at stifling dissent”.
The Iraqi Parliament is currently considering a bill on “freedom of expression, the right to assemble and the right to demonstrate peacefully.”
In the fall of 2019, Iraq was the scene of an unprecedentedly strong protest movement that denounced endemic corruption in a country severely affected by economic problems and degradation of public services.
At the time, the police used live ammunition and the crackdown resulted in over 600 deaths.
Author: Portuguese
Source: CM Jornal
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