Widespread outrage among Yezidis after teenager sentenced to death

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The death sentence for a Yezidi (Ezidi) teenager in Iraq has sparked wide outrage among the religious minority who blame the judge responsible for the sentence of having links to the so-called Islamic State.

Khaled Shamo, 20, is charged with the murder of Faris Newab Mihemed, 25, from Zummar near the Iraqi-Syrian border on Aug. 3, 2017. Shamo was sentenced to death by hanging on Feb. 4.

The 20-year-old’s family believes he is innocent and was at a refugee camp in Zakho at the alleged time of the crime.

On Monday, Ezidis in Shingal staged a protest against the decision and called for Shamo’s release.

A day earlier, Peshmerga Commander Qassim Shesho released a video on Facebook maintaining Shamo’s innocence. Commander Shesho also accused Judge Cemal Dawid Qaro from the Nineveh Court who sentenced the Ezidi teenager to death of being a “terrorist.”

In the video, Shesho claimed Judge Qaro is a former member of Al Qaida who then joined the ranks of the Islamic State before serving as the head of the Nineveh court.

“It’s a shame for the Iraqi government – for all Shias – that such a person is accepted as a head of a court in Mosul.”

He called on Iraqi authorities and officials in the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to intervene.

Hayrî Demir, editor-in-chief of EzidiPress, told Kurdistan 24 that the sentencing caused outrage among Ezidis “because of the injustice they suffered for years in Iraq.”

Indeed, among those injustices is the August 2014 genocide at the hands of the Islamic State, in which untold numbers of Ezidis were massacred and thousands of women forced into sexual slavery.

“Only a few ISIS members were convicted for their crimes against Ezidis and it is taking too long to bring them to court, despite the fact that Ezidis have given the authorities the names [of suspects],” Demir stated.

In Shamo’s case, “they feel a double injustice, especially that a judge whose family has ties to ISIS and Al Qaida has given the death sentence,” he added.

“Many Ezidis thought they could bring their former neighbors who helped ISIS to court. Instead, they are now convicted by them.”

Pari Ibrahim, founder and executive director of the Free Yezidi Foundation, described the sentence as “outrageous,” adding that “the Nineveh governorate, among the most dysfunctional governance systems in Iraq and probably the whole world, [enacted] a death sentence against a Yezidi survivor with nearly no evidence.”

Ibrahim noted that the sentence comes while thousands of Islamic State members, including perpetrators of rape, murder, kidnapping, and other crimes against humanity “walk free.”

“This has two chilling effects” first, it further underscores why Yezidis do not trust a return to the Sinjar homeland when there [are] such terrible and discriminatory judicial and governance systems,” she told Kurdistan 24.

“Two, it demonstrates to [ISIS] members and sympathizers that power structures in the Nineveh governorate can remain intact, where Sunni Muslims have more rights than others and minorities like Yezidis can be arbitrarily targeted.”

Ibrahim highlighted the lack of justice from a part of Iraq where real and impartial justice is needed the most.

“In moments like these, the international community should intervene in defense of religious minorities at great risk and without real recourse or defense of their rights. This situation can get out of hand quickly, Yezidis will not accept this.”

The Iraqi Supreme Judicial Council has promised to investigate the case following a complaint by Ezidi MP Saib Khidir.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany