Irakisches Urteil: Offizier wird wegen Tötung von Demonstranten zu lebenslanger Haftstrafe verurteilt

Dies ist gewiss ein bemerkenswertes Urteil, das es so nicht in vielen Staaten des Nahen Ostens geben würde:

An Iraqi court on Sunday sentenced a top security official to life in prison, accused of suppressing demonstrators during the 2019 protests and being directly involved in the events that led to the killing of at least 30 protesters in Dhi Qar province.

Omar Nazar, a lieutenant colonel of Iraq's Emergency Response Division (ERD), was arrested in February 2022 after written confessions from his fellow officers surfaced revealing that he had ordered the police and security forces to fire live ammunition at the protestors who had blocked the main thoroughfare of al-Nasr and al-Zaytoon bridges in Iraq’s Nasiriyah city in November of 2019.

At least 30 protestors were killed and over 200 were injured in one night, marking the al-Zaytoon massacre.

Dhi Qar’s criminal court sentenced Nazar to life imprisonment for the murder of Mustafa Ahmad, a 19-year-old protester, “and his group,” as well as wounding several other protesters, according to a document seen by Rudaw English.

“Many young people were killed based on his orders,” Mohammad al-Taei, an activist and participant of the 2019 protests told Rudaw’s Hemin Baban, adding “all criminals and those who opened fire against the protesters must be punished.”