The government reopens the "October" investigations, and activists are not aware of the coordination

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[size=52]The government reopens the "October" investigations, and activists are not aware of the coordination framework: We want a special court[/size]

[size=45]Baghdad / Tamim Al-Hassan[/size]
[size=45]Activists in the October protests are calling for the formation of a special court to hold the killers of the demonstrators accountable, while they assert that sham trials took place for the accused.[/size]
[size=45]This came against the background of Prime Minister Mohammed Al-Sudani's request to a governmental committee formed more than two years ago to expedite the completion of investigations.[/size]
[size=45]Since the overthrow of the government of Adel Abdul Mahdi in late 2020, 11 main committees and more than 20 committees have been formed in individual killings that accompanied the protests that erupted in the fall of 2019.[/size]
[size=45]Last month, Human Rights Watch confirmed that no legal accountability had been achieved in the cases of "killing, maiming, and disappearance of demonstrators" in Iraq, which the organization investigated, even for high-profile assassinations, noting that the process of compensating the victims was slow and cumbersome.[/size]
[size=45]According to government data, acts of violence against protesters during and after the demonstrations left 600 dead and more than 20,000 injured, in addition to dozens of kidnapped.[/size]
[size=45]The government committee concerned with investigating those incidents said in a statement on Tuesday that it had received instructions from "Prime Minister Muhammad Shia' al-Sudani to expedite the committee's procedures related to the investigation of the events that accompanied the October 2019 demonstrations and beyond."[/size]
[size=45]The statement on the committee, which was formed according to Diwani Order 293 of 2020, indicated that “Al-Sudani called on the honorable citizens who have (exclusively) eyewitness accounts related to the events that resulted in criminal incidents that accompanied the events of the October 2019 demonstrations and beyond, to appear before the committee to write down their statements.”[/size]
[size=45]The Prime Minister indicated, according to the statement, that "the results of the fact-finding committee will be presented at a conference designated for this purpose, in compliance with the government program, and fulfilling our promises to the October demonstrators."[/size]
[size=45]Regarding previous testimonies collected by the commission in the past two years, Hussein Al-Gharabi, one of the most prominent protest activists, says that "sham trials took place for the accused."[/size]
[size=45]Al-Gharabi added in an interview with (Al-Mada): “The accused, whether he is an officer or a member of the militia, comes to the court in full elegance and high caliber, and comes out shortly thereafter.”[/size]
[size=45]And Abdul-Mahdi, the former prime minister, had admitted in 2019 the existence of sniping operations targeting demonstrators.[/size]
[size=45]A committee formed at that time, a number of officers and officials in the governorates, condemned the acts of violence, while saying that most of the injuries were in the head.[/size]
[size=45]Hussein Al-Gharabi, a resident of Nasiriyah (the center of Dhi Qar governorate), remembers what happened in what was known as the “Zaytoun Bridge massacre,” saying: “Jamil al-Shammari (a senior officer assigned in 2019 to manage the crisis in the city) came on a dark night from Baghdad to Nasiriyah to give Orders to shoot demonstrators.[/size]
[size=45]According to Al-Gharabi, "64 young men were killed by intense gunfire from Al-Zaytoun Bridge to Al-Haboubi Square, in the center of Nasiriyah," adding that "now Al-Shammari and Officer Omar Nizar were not held accountable, but on the contrary, they got good positions."[/size]
[size=45]According to the latest leaks, Jamil Al-Shammari, who was previously investigated for violence, is now the president of the Defense University for Postgraduate Military Studies.[/size]
[size=45]As for Omar Nizar, he is an officer who was previously accused of murder and rape during the operations to liberate Mosul in 2016, before he was assigned the task of controlling the protests in Nasiriyah, and he was accused of shooting demonstrators.[/size]
[size=45]And Nizar was arrested last year as a result of these accusations, while his fate is not known yet after leaks that he was acquitted of the events in Mosul.[/size]
[size=45]Al-Gharabi, a lawyer, says, "We made calls against what happened in Zeitoun and other areas, but no one was convicted," noting that in the events of Nasiriyah, "the use of bullets from aircraft" was confirmed.[/size]
[size=45]A year ago, a parliamentary committee had met with more than 60 officials in Najaf, Dhi Qar and Babel, and confirmed to (Al-Mada) that “Jamil Al-Shammari did not give orders to shoot directly at the protesters, but only to show strength.”[/size]
[size=45]After the announcement of a new government in 2020, Al-Gharabi and his comrades formed a political party, but it did not participate in the recent elections, and the emerging party faced many difficulties.[/size]
[size=45]Al-Gharabi believes that after 3 years of the October protests, "there is no longer confidence that a government will prosecute the murderers, especially the current government."[/size]
[size=45]He added, "This government was formed by the coordination framework, and the latter has factions accused of killing demonstrators, so we cannot believe that it will reveal the truth about what happened in October."[/size]
[size=45]In the last days of Mustafa Al-Kadhimi's previous government, the prime minister said last year, "The government implemented October's demands and pursued those involved in the blood of the Iraqis."[/size]
[size=45]Early this year, Human Rights Watch said that the former Iraqi government promoted "the arrest of the alleged killer of the well-known security analyst Hisham al-Hashemi, but the judges in the case postponed the trial on several occasions without trying the suspect."[/size]
[size=45]She pointed out that the process of compensating the victims of the demonstrations "was slow and cumbersome for most of those who sought compensation, with some of the injured having to wait more than two and a half years to receive financial compensation."[/size]
[size=45]Hussein Al-Gharabi confirms that what is "uglier than the killing in October is what happened after that in terms of kidnappings and forced disappearances," stressing that "dozens of protesters disappeared, including my friends."[/size]
[size=45]An Iraqi human rights organization said last year that 11,000 families reported cases of kidnapping of their relatives between 2014 and 2022.[/size]
[size=45]Recently, Sajjad Salem, a Tishreen activist before he won the elections last year, said that the balance of justice “returned to zero” after the defendants escaped in the only violent case that was decided in Tishreen.[/size]
[size=45]Salem wrote on Twitter: “About justice in Iraq..among the hundreds of martyrs in the protests, the only case in Iraq for two martyrs was a judgment against the offending officers at the end of 2019 (and I was the lawyer for the representative of the martyrs’ families at the time). The officers were released and acquitted of the charge a few days ago, so that the balance of justice returns to zero![/size]
[size=45]In turn, Ahmed Al-Wishah, another prominent activist in the protests, sees the committees as "a way to evade responsibility and dilute the facts."[/size]
[size=45]Instead, Al-Wishah demands, in an interview with (Al-Mada), that "a special court be formed for the events of October, similar to the Publication and Integrity Courts, and the former regime's criminal court."[/size]
[size=45]The activist says: "At that time we will go and present the evidence, documents and videos to the court, otherwise the committees will not tell the truth."[/size]
[size=45]Al-Wishah is surprised by the investigators and courts' request to identify the personalities who killed the protesters, adding: "Most of the gunmen were masked, and if they were not, we do not know their names or addresses."[/size]
[size=45]He continued, "We know from their clothes and wheels, on some of which were written that they belong to the army, the interior ministry, or the riot police. Threats and fatwas of killing were also issued against us by clerics and officials who must be investigated."[/size]
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