Hundreds of protestors took to the streets of Nasiriyah on Tuesday protesting the issuing of a three-year prison sentence to Haider al-Zaidi, a 20-year-old Iraqi activist who allegedly criticized Iranian-backed Iraqi militias such as the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF, or Hashd al-Shaabi) on Twitter.
The protestors were met with live bullets by security forces, killing two and injuring at least 17, sources told AP on the condition of anonymity.
“Dhi Qar governor Mohammed Hadi al-Ghazi declared Thursday an official holiday to mourn the souls of the martyr demonstrators,” state media cited a government source in the province as saying, adding that “mourning was announced for three days in the province.”
Zaidi was handed a prison sentence on Monday over a deleted Twitter post from his account where he criticized Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the slain deputy leader of the PMF, an umbrella group of mostly Iraqi Shiite paramilitary groups that have largely been integrated into the official Iraqi security apparatus.
Muhandis was killed on January 3, 2020 in a US drone strike in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad alongside Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commander Qasem Soleimani.
The New York-based rights organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) condemned Zaidi’s arrest on Tuesday and called for his immediate release while urging Iraqi authorities not to use the justice system to suppress criticism.
The Tweet in question referred to Muhandis as a “spy,” contrasting the designation of “martyr” bestowed upon him by PMF and PMF-linked groups.
Zaidi and his father have denied that he posted the tweet, claiming his account was hacked, according to HRW.
“It is a sad reflection on the rule of law in Iraq that an activist like al-Zaidi gets three years in prison for a Twitter post he says he didn’t write while dozens of officials and armed groups enjoy impunity for killing activists and protestors,” said Adam Coogle, deputy Middle East director at HRW.
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani directed a security delegation to be sent to the province “to investigate the casualties among the demonstrators.”
Iraqi social media users have vehemently condemned Zaidi’s arrest, lamenting his three-year prison sentence while comparing it to Noor Zuhair Jassim, a businessman involved in the stunning theft of $2.5 billion in tax funds from an Iraqi bank who was recently released on bail.
“The one who stole $2.5 billion was released on bail,” Zaidi’s father Hamid al-Zaidi told HRW. “Meanwhile my son was sentenced to three years in prison for a Twitter post he didn’t even write.”
Nasiyirah was a stronghold of anti-government protests that erupted in Iraq in October 2019 that triggered a brutal crackdown by security forces that killed more than 600 people.
Iraqis took to the streets in massive countrywide protests in October 2019 over widespread dissatisfaction with the country’s politicians and rife corruption. The protests led to the resignation of then-prime minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi and early elections two years later.
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