Human Rights: The government is unable to expose the killers of activists and bring them to justice

[size=52]Human Rights: The government is unable to expose the killers of activists and bring them to justice[/size]

[size=45]Translated by Hamid Ahmed[/size]
[size=45]Human Rights Watch, human rights activists, and activists have stated that there is no hope that the Iraqi authorities will be able to bring the killers of Ihab al-Wazni and other dishonest activists to justice.[/size]
[size=45]The activist in civil society organizations Al-Wazni, was assassinated last week in Karbala, and his death sparked protests that lasted for a whole day in the city of Karbala, when demonstrators closed roads and bridges and burned tires. “The groups behind these killings are so powerful that the Iraqi state and its law enforcement system cannot hold them accountable,” Human Rights Watch researcher Belkis Wiley told The National news site. This means that we have very powerful armed groups that can commit crimes in the daylight in the streets of Iraq with impunity, and the state cannot do anything to curb these attacks.[/size]
[size=45]The Iraqi authorities had opened an urgent investigation after the accident, but so far they have not announced those involved in this crime.[/size]
[size=45]Researcher Wiley said that true accountability and justice will not prevail in Iraq and that attacks against members of civil society organizations and journalists will continue as long as armed groups are able to "spread terror and silence criticism."[/size]
[size=45]Armed factions linked to political parties have tightened their grip on state institutions since the US invasion of Iraq that toppled the former regime in 2003. Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kazemi, who took office in May last year, pledged to deliver justice to activists who had been killed or abused by armed groups, and a section of the Shiite parties was facing him.[/size]
[size=45]The assassination of al-Wazni has sparked anger over the government's absence in providing protection for civilians and its failure to provide public services and job opportunities. Al-Wazzani was an opponent and critic of cases of corruption in the country and the incursion of Iran's influence in Iraq through armed groups supported by it. Mass protests against the government that began in late 2019 in many provinces in southern and central Iraq resulted in the killing, arrest and disappearance of hundreds of people whose families are still awaiting news of their fate. Ali Al-Bayati, a member of the Council of the Commission for Human Rights, told The National website, “There is no progress on the ground regarding the investigation or implementation of the accountability aspect. Unfortunately, impunity is the prevailing condition for such crimes that encourage their perpetrators to continue with the crimes, and that intimidation and attacks will continue.[/size]
[size=45]Diaa Al-Hindi, one of the youngest activists from the leaders of the protest movement in the city of Karbala, said that Al-Wazni was the third member of the movement to be assassinated by armed groups operating in the area.[/size]
[size=45]"We believe that the Iraqi government knows very well, as we know, who killed Al-Wazni and the other two activists," added Al-Hindi, who is seeking to enter the upcoming elections. The killers are operating under government cover. We have protested a lot to pressure the government to punish the killers, but nothing has happened. Truth will not win with such a weak government. Al-Hindi said that the area in which al-Wazzani was killed is a security-protected area surrounded by surveillance cameras, indicating that the killer is aware of this matter and this did not prevent him.[/size]
[size=45]Hassan Wahhab, of the Al-Amal Organization for Human Rights in Baghdad, said that civil society has lost hope that the government will reveal the identities of those involved in these crimes.[/size]
[size=45]Wahhab added, "I do not think that the Iraqi government will be serious this time in exposing the killers of Ihab Al-Wazni because it had previously made many pledges that were not implemented. Because of this desperation to achieve justice, the protesters ’rhetoric has changed and turned towards an escalation by threatening to boycott the upcoming elections.[/size]
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