ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — A civil activist who participated in Iraq's anti-establishment protests was shot dead in the southern city of Basra on Friday. Tahseen Oussama was shot 20 times at his internet service company in the city's al-Junaina neighbourhood by "militia" gunmen, according to local media outlet Basra Today. The identity and affiliation of the perpetrators has not been confirmed. Oussama had taken part in anti-establishment and anti-corruption protests in Basra that had spread from Baghdad across the country in October of last year. He was a vocal critic of both the government and of militias accused of killing protesters with impunity. On July 6, the day of Iraqi security analyst Husham al-Hashimi's assassination – largely suspected to have been conducted by Shiite militants – Oussama took to Facebook to warn “we will all be slaughtered in the Islamic way one day,” sharing a photo of a gun and its silencer. Iraqi activists have been warning of an increasingly threatening environment for those who speak out against the country's current political order. Data provided to Rudaw English from the Iraqi High Commission for Human Rights (IHCHR) last month put the number of protesters and aligned activists assassinated between October 1, 2019 and March 17, 2020 at 22. The IHCHR “warned against the return of the phenomenon of the assassination of civil activists" after Oussama's death. Continued assassinations are demonstrating “the weakness of security intelligence … which encourages the gangs to resume their crimes,” its statement published on Friday evening added. Oussama's killing also sparked outcry from international human rights organisation representatives. “What is happening in Iraq! And the murderers are never get caught," Donatella Rovera, Senior Crisis Adviser at Amnesty International said on Twitter.
