ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Abducted German arts educator Hella Mewis has been liberated by Iraqi security forces from her captors, tweeted Yehia Rasool, spokesperson of the Iraqi commander-in-chief on Friday morning.
Mewis was freed at 6:25 a.m. local time (0325 GMT) in an operation outside the capital Baghdad in which security forces raided a location based on information they obtained regarding her whereabouts, a security official told the Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
The German national, who ran numerous programmes at an arts collective in the capital, was kidnapped late Monday outside her workplace in central Baghdad, according to friends and a security source. No information has been released on the identity of her captors.
A friend of Mewis, speaking to Rudaw English on condition of anonymity, said the German national is "fine." Mewis said her captors did not do anything to her and she is leaving Iraq as soon as possible, according to the friend.
Mewis’s abduction came just two weeks after prominent Iraqi security analyst and Rudaw columnist Husham al-Hashimi was assassinated by unknown armed groups in Baghdad. Hashimi’s death struck fear in already wary journalists, activists, and members of civil society similarly speaking out against the status quo in Iraq.
The artist, who has lived in Baghdad for seven years, took part in ongoing protests that began sweeping across Baghdad and Iraq's Shiite-majority south in October, voraciously documenting them on her work Instagram account. Her friend, speaking to Rudaw on condition of anonymity, said the involvement of a foreigner in the protests saw her branded a spy by what he called an “electronic army” of online anonymous trolls.
She "taught many young people about contemporary art which made a huge jump in the scene,” her friend said. “She contributed a lot to Iraq, she shouldn’t get paid back like this.”
A number of foreign nationals have been kidnapped over the past year, marking a sharp increase in a practice that had been becoming less common than it once was.
Two French journalists were kidnapped allegedly by armed groups during the new year’s attack on the US embassy in Baghdad, but were released shortly after.
Three French nationals working with a French Christian charity in Iraq were abducted in January and released three months later.
The perpetrators of Hashimi’s assasination are still at large, but blame has mostly been squared at the Iran-backed armed militias – particularly Kataib Hezbollah, a Tehran-backed Iraqi militia falling under the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF, known in Arabic as Hashd al-Shaabi) umbrella. Hashimi had received death threats from hardline PMF factions soon before his death, his associates said.
Before the coronavirus pandemic placed the country on lockdown, Iraq had been rocked by months of nationwide unrest as overwhelmingly young crowds demanded jobs, services, and action against corruption.
At least 600 protesters and members of the security forces were killed and more than 18,000 injured over the months since the movement emerged in October, according to human rights monitor Amnesty International.
Journalists, activists, and civil society actors are among those who have been caught in the crosshairs of the violence of the ongoing protests.
By March 17, at least 53 assassination attempts on protesters and aligned activists had been recorded, with 22 killed, Ali al-Bayati, commissioner of Iraqi High Commission for Human Rights (IHCHR), a government-funded body documenting abuses told Rudaw English on June 15. Of 75 people kidnapped, only 25 have been released to date, the fate of the remaining majority unknown.
The Iraqi Supreme Judicial Council released a statement Friday morning confirming the release of Mewis, saying an investigation is ongoing and more information will be released at a later time.
Updated at 5:07 pm
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