“The judiciary issued arrest warrants for those accused of killing Husham al-Hashimi,” Zaidan told Iraqi state TV, without providing details of the wanted persons.
Hashimi was assassinated a year ago by unknown gunmen near his house. He is the highest profile death among tens of murders of activists and journalists over the past year.
Officials have made repeated promises to bring Hashimi’s killers to justice. In October, Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi said they had leads in the case, but authorities were waiting for “the appropriate time” to reveal them. A month later, then government spokesperson Ahmed Mullah Talal said two of the killers had been identified, but had been smuggled abroad and the government was working to bring them back. He resigned soon after.
According to the human rights commission, at least 34 activists have been killed since anti-government protests began in October 2019. Many promises of justice have been made, but results of investigations have not been made public.
Zaidan said that some cases of killings of demonstrators have been solved, especially in Kut and Babil provinces. “Death sentences have been issued against officers involved in the killing of protesters,” he said, describing the case as “complicated and thorny.”
The United Nations mission in Iraq (UNAMI) revealed in May that more than 1,000 court cases relating to violence against Iraqi protesters were closed, many seemingly due to threats against victims' families, prolonging impunity for the “unknown perpetrators.”
The family of Safaa al-Saray, who was killed in October 2019 demonstrations, told Rudaw English earlier in June that they have been pressured by the judiciary to withdraw the case they filed against former Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi, during whose tenure nearly 600 demonstrators were killed and 18,000 were wounded.
In June, a militia commander Qassem Musleh, who was implicated in the murders of activists, was released, reportedly because of a lack of evidence. Zaidan said the judiciary did not succumb to pressure to release Musleh.
He also accused the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) of "being uncooperative with the federal government to hand over wanted persons and fugitives from justice in the Kurdistan Region." He did not indicate if any of the persons wanted from the Kurdistan Region are related to Hashimi’s case or those of other assassinations.
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