Security

HRW hails arrest of Iraqi officer as 'important first step toward accountability'

"The case, launched February 22 in the Nasiriyah Investigation Court, is significant not only because it is one of the few instances the authorities have pursued a senior security officer for crimes committed against civilians."

Wladimir van Wilgenburg 2022/02/25 15:01

Omar Nizar was holding the rank of major when he was accused of committing atrocities. (Photo: social media)

Iraq Omar Nizar HRW 2019 Iraq protests

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Belkis Wille, a Senior Researcher at the Crisis and Conflict Division for Human Rights Watch (HRW), on Thursday hailed the recent arrest of Iraqi Lt. Col. Omar Nizar for abuses against protesters during a 2019 crackdown, describing the move as "an important first step toward accountability."

In her dispatch, Wille stressed that arrests for mass killings of protesters "should never be limited to cases where leaked investigations are made public."

On Feb. 22, a court in Nasiriyah issued an arrest warrant for Nizar on charges related to the killing of protesters in Nasiriyah in November 2019.

The decision came after human rights organizations published video reports accusing Nizar, a lieutenant-colonel in the Iraqi Ministry of Interior's Emergency Response Division (ERD), of rape, extrajudicial killings, and other rights abuses.

ERD was deployed against ISIS in Mosul and in response to widespread protests throughout the country in 2019 and 2020.

HRW said that in 2016 and 2017, Kurdish photojournalist Ali Arkady embedded with ERD units during battles against ISIS in Fallujah and Mosul.

"In May 2017, after fleeing the country, Arkady published photos and videos that apparently showed members of ERD units, including Nazar, committing abuses," Wille wrote. "This is not the subject of the current investigation."

"Days after the publication of this evidence, Nazar appeared in a video posted on YouTube and Facebook at the home of one man whose torture by another ERD unit was captured in Arkady's photos and videos, and had the man deny the torture on camera," she added.

"In statements to the media after the Arkady publication, Nazar did not deny abuses happened. He remained in a command position until now."

On Feb. 13, an Iraqi court sentenced two people to death by hanging for their role in a recent botched counterterrorism operation that led to the deaths of 20 people from the same family in rural Babil province.