Tsurkov Breaks Silence: 903 Days of Captivity, Torture, and Electrocution

ERBIL (Kurdistan24) – In a searing testimony that exposes the brutality and impunity of Iran-backed militias operating inside Iraq, Israeli-Russian researcher Elizabeth Tsurkov has recounted in detail to the New York Times, the torture, sexual assault, and psychological torment she endured over two and a half years of captivity at the hands of Kataib Hezbollah, one of Iraq’s most powerful armed factions.

Elizabeth Tsurkov, 38, a doctoral candidate at Princeton University, was kidnapped in Baghdad in March 2023 and held in solitary confinement until her release in September 2025. Speaking from a friend’s home after weeks of medical treatment, she described a sustained ordeal of physical and psychological abuse.

“They handcuffed me, hung me from the ceiling, and beat me senseless,” she said in her first interview since regaining freedom. “They shocked me with electricity, whipped me all over, and basically used me as a punching bag.”

Her captors, members of Kataib Hezbollah—a militia financed by the Iraqi state and backed by Iran—accused her of espionage after discovering her Israeli identity. Tsurkov, who entered Iraq on her Russian passport to conduct academic research on Shiite movements, said the initial kidnappers seemed unaware she was Israeli and likely intended to ransom her.

A month later, upon finding Israeli-related data on her phone, her situation deteriorated sharply. “They accused me of being a spy. I tried to explain that I had publicly supported Palestinian rights and criticized the Israeli government. They didn’t care,” she said.

Tsurkov’s testimony details systematic torture: being suspended for hours, electrocuted, beaten by interrogators named “Ibrahim” and “Maher,” and threatened with rape by a jailer known as “the colonel.”

“They twisted my fingers until I nearly blacked out. They hit me everywhere,” she said. “When I fainted, they threw water on my face so they could start again.”

During one session, she lost a tooth after repeated blows. Medical records from Israel’s Sheba Medical Center confirm severe nerve damage and lasting physical trauma requiring long-term rehabilitation.

To survive, she began offering fabricated confessions, ensuring they would not endanger innocent Iraqis. Her captors, convinced by her false admissions, occasionally paused the torture, offering brief moments of food and rest.

Tsurkov spent her first four and a half months in a windowless room under constant camera surveillance. After her kidnappers confirmed her identity, she was transferred to a Kataib Hezbollah base near Iraq’s eastern border, where she would remain isolated for nearly two years.

“I never saw the sun,” she said. “They eventually gave me books, notebooks, and a small TV, but I was completely alone.”

Her new captors, she said, were less violent but continued to restrict her movements. Occasionally, a nurse visited to treat her injuries. “He suggested I write about the torture—it helped me survive,” she recalled.

During Israel’s bombing campaign against Iran in mid-2025, the base shook from nearby explosions. “I realized how close I was to dying, either from the airstrikes or their hands,” she said.

In November 2023, Iraqi television aired a video showing Tsurkov alive but visibly under duress. Speaking in Hebrew, she “confessed” to working for Israeli intelligence and the CIA—claims she says were dictated by her captors.

To secretly signal the abuse she endured, Tsurkov embedded coded messages in her forced speech. Claiming to have lived in “Gan HaHashmal” (“Electric Garden” in Hebrew) was her way of referencing electrocution. She even invented names for supposed Israeli handlers, wordplays meaning “torture” across Hebrew, English, and Russian.

Her captors, unaware of the code, presented her statements as proof of guilt.

Behind the scenes, her fate became a matter of high-stakes diplomacy involving Israel, Iraq, and the United States. After the Israeli government publicly held Baghdad responsible for her safety in July 2023, U.S. pressure on Iraq intensified.

According to officials familiar with the case, the Trump administration, which returned to office earlier that year, played a pivotal role in securing her release. Businessman Mark Savaya, a friend of President Trump and later named special envoy to Iraq, personally accompanied her from Baghdad to Cyprus, where she was transferred to an Israeli military aircraft.

“I genuinely believe I would have died if they had not engaged so consistently and with such incredible determination,” Tsurkov said.

U.S. hostage envoy Adam Boehler and senior State Department adviser Massad Boulos also advocated persistently for her release. Diplomatic sources said Boehler even entered a meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani uninvited to press for action.

Tsurkov’s family believes a combination of U.S. pressure and Kataib Hezbollah’s fear of Israeli reprisals prompted her release. “They realized I had become more of a liability than an asset,” she said.

Iraqi officials, however, described the release as the result of “complex diplomatic and humanitarian efforts,” denying that threats or external coercion influenced the outcome.

On Sept. 9, 2025, after 903 days in captivity, Tsurkov was handed over to an Iraqi official in a Baghdad garage. “He told me in English that I was now in safe hands,” she said.

At an Iraqi government guesthouse, she met female doctors—the first women she had seen since her abduction. From there, Savaya escorted her on the flight to Cyprus.

Hours later, she arrived at the U.S. Embassy, where officials connected her by video call with her sisters, Emma and Avital. “I asked her: ‘Are you alive? Because I buried you so many times in my head,’” Emma said. “She said she was okay, but she would need medical care.”

Upon returning to Israel, Tsurkov was admitted to Sheba Medical Center, where doctors confirmed extensive injuries from beatings and electric shocks. “They told me to walk into the hospital myself, so I wouldn’t feel broken,” she recalled.

Soon after, a Telegram account associated with Kataib Hezbollah spokesperson Abu Ali al-Askari posted details from her forced confessions, including a fictional handler named “Ethan Nuima” — a name Tsurkov had invented as a linguistic joke. “It proved beyond doubt that they were the ones who held me,” she said.

Despite her suffering, Tsurkov says she decided to share her story not only to expose her captors but to shed light on the plight of Iraqi civilians tortured by the same group.

“Kataib Hezbollah has turned Iraq into a prison for its own people,” she said. “They operate with total impunity, paid by the state and protected by Iran. I survived, but countless Iraqis do not.”

Her ordeal—marked by resilience, intelligence, and endurance—has become a chilling symbol of the unchecked power wielded by Iran-backed militias in Iraq and a rare personal account of the horrors that often remain hidden behind their political and religious slogans.

“I want my story to be a voice for those who cannot speak,” she said quietly. “They broke my body, but not my will.”