The Iraqi Intelligence Agency announced the arrest of the perpetrator of the murder of pharmacist activist Sheelan Dara and her parents in Baghdad, a day after the crime that caused an uproar in Iraq.
"An intelligence operation managed to arrest the perpetrator of the Al-Mansour massacre, in which Sheelan and her family were killed (Tuesday evening in the Mansour area)," the Interior Ministry agency said in a statement on Wednesday evening.
The Ministry of Interior confirmed that its security services were able to discover the crime in record time, know the location of the perpetrator and arrest him.
Ministry spokesman Khaled Al-Muhanna said in a statement that the crime was motivated by theft, as indicated by the "seizures" of the crime that were seized in the possession of the perpetrator.
For its part, the Asayish forces of the Ministry of Interior in the Kurdistan region of Iraq published video confessions of the perpetrator of the murder of the family.
The perpetrator identified himself as Mahdi Hussein Nasir, who lives east of Baghdad.
In a recorded video, he said that he works as a security element of the Ministry of Interior within the force in charge of protecting the Russian embassy in Baghdad.
He pointed out that he had known the Chelan family 4 years ago, and last Tuesday he entered their home near the Russian embassy building to borrow money from her father.
He added in his confessions that Sheelan's father refused to lend him an amount of money, which forced him to stab him several times with a knife, then he was surprised that Sheelan's mother entered him, so he had to stab her in the stomach, so she died.
He continued that while he was trying to hide his crime and wash the blood, she entered Al-Bit Sheilan, who was surprised and screamed, so he tried to calm her down and did not respond, so he was forced to kill her, and then he stole an amount of money exceeding $ 10,000 and other things, then he left Baghdad and fled to Erbil in the Kurdistan region.
In his confession, he said that he had tried in Erbil to obtain a visa to travel outside the country, and upon his return to the hotel in which he lived in Erbil, he was arrested.
The confessions of the slain Qan Shilan, may God have mercy on her, and Winto Yajukriyah Kafi are false accusations. # Do not trade in victims pic.twitter.com/wDbOvcCc5O
- Visions of Muhammad (@ ruaamohammed155) September 16, 2020
The accused did not link the murder to motives related to the liquidation of activists in the protests, but to the purpose of theft.
The killing of the pharmacist and her family caused a sensation and shock in Iraq due to the violent nature of the incident, as well as because she participated in the demonstrations as a paramedic, which raised doubts that she might be assassinated, like other activists killed recently in different areas in Iraq.
It is noteworthy that Sheelan is a graduate of the College of Pharmacy in Baghdad in 2016, and she was working as a pharmacist in the Medical City in the capital, in the Department of Cancer, and was active recently in Tahrir Square in Baghdad in light of the protests in the country.