Iraq: two dead on the sidelines of a demonstration in Nassiriya

Mourners accompany the coffin of one of the two protesters killed earlier this Wednesday, December 7, 2022 in the city of Nasiriyah.

AFP - ASAAD NIAZI

Text by: RFI Follow

1 min

First deadly demonstration in Iraq since the new government came to power a month and a half ago.

In Nassiriya, stronghold of the protest movements against the regime in place, resulting from the revolts of 2019, two demonstrators were killed and around twenty people were injured by the security forces.

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With our correspondent in Baghdad

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Three hundred people had gathered to denounce the arrests of activists in the province of Dhi Qar, a regular scene of demonstrations by the movements resulting from the popular revolts of 2019.

This time clashes broke out and riot police fired live ammunition.

The Iraqi prime minister ordered the dismissal of the local police chief and the dispatch of a commission to investigate the deaths of the protesters.

But the dispute has spread, meanwhile, to the neighboring province, in the city of Diwaniya.

At the beginning of the week, the tension rose a notch, after the conviction of a young activist, Haider al-Zaidi, to three years in prison.

He was accused of violating the law against publicly insulting a government institution or one of its representatives.

In tweets, he would have called Abu Mehdi al-Mouhandis, former leader of the Shiite paramilitary group Hachd al-Chaabi killed in January 2020, a spy. Haider al-Zaidi has always denied having written these tweets.

Many voices are now being raised to demand the cancellation of this decision by the Baghdad court.

►Read also: Iraqi Prime Minister visits Iran to strengthen cooperation between the two countries

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• Iraq