On 10 December 2019 at night, the poet and civil society activist, Ali Al-Lami (picture 1), was kidnapped while he was returning to his sister's house after participating in the Al-Tahrir Square demonstrations, where his body was found at two o'clock after midnight and dumped in Al-Sha`b area, north of Baghdad.
Al-Lami is a 49-year-old from the city of Kut and has participated in the demonstrations of Tahrir Square as a representative of his city, and he has always called on his Facebook page to keep the demonstrations peaceful.
On 11 December 2019, around noon, human rights defenders Salman Khairallah Al-Mansoori (picture 3) and Omar Khadum Al-A’mri (picture 4) were kidnapped, and their last contact with a female colleague was at 11:30 in the morning when they were on Al-Nawab Street in Al-Khadhimiya district to buy some tents for protesters in Al-Tahrir Square.
Al-Mansoori is an environmentalist activist and Al-A’mri is a civilian activist, both members of the Iraqi Social Forum and within the initiative of “Protectors of Tigris” which aims to protect the Tigris River from drought through various activities.
Also on the evening of 11 December 2019 in the Al-Shula area of Baghdad, civil society activist Alaa Bashi Al-Jizani (picture 2) was assassinated after a car collided with him and its driver killed him and fled. Al-Jezani supported and participated in the peaceful demonstrations.
On the evening of the same day, in the city of Diwaniyah, the centre of Al-Qadisiyah Governorate, civil society activist Ahmed Al-Suwaidi and his colleague Arshad Al-Abdullah in Doctors Street came under fire at their car by a police officer who was located in temporary checkpoint and was almost losing their lives due to the firing. The Governorate police commander has announced that he has ordered that legal action be taken against the member who opened fire on the car.
The Iraqi government must end all forms of violence immediately and without any conditions, as well as protect peaceful demonstrators as well as activists throughout the country transparently and seriously, defend their civil and human rights, respect public freedoms, including freedom of expression, freedom to demonstrate peacefully, and freedom of the press, as well as enact a fair election law and amend all other oppressive laws that perpetuate corruption and entrenches the power of large parties.
The Iraqi government should also conduct prompt, independent and impartial investigations into the killings of demonstrators and activists, to disseminate the findings and bring all those responsible to justice according to international standards.
We call upon the President of the Republic of Iraq Barham Salih, Speaker of the Iraqi Parliament Mohammad Al-Halbousi, and Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi to reveal the fate of the abducted human rights defenders and activists, as reform starts with the protection of human dignity, and their absence means that the government has no real intention of reform.
Signed,
Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR)
Iraqi Network for social media (INSM)
Iraqi Observatory for Human Rights (IOHR)
Metro Center for Journalists' Rights and Advocacy
PEN Center in Iraq
