ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Portuguese police are investigating an incident where the twin sons of Iraq’s ambassador in Lisbon allegedly carried out a brutal attack on a 15-year-old boy, leaving him in a coma after he was run over with a car and beaten and kicked on the ground.
Portuguese and other European media reports said that Portugal may ask Baghdad to lift immunity on the sons of the Iraqi ambassador, Saad Mohammed Ridha, pending the outcome of a police investigation on the August 17 attack, presumably so they can be prosecuted.
The twins are suspected of carrying out the brutal attack on the teenager, identified only as “Rubin,” following a bar brawl in the town of Ponte de Sor, where one of the brothers was training as a pilot.
The attacked boy was airlifted after the incident and is reported to be in a coma.
Portuguese media reports said that one of the brothers is suspected of running over the teenager with a car registered to the Iraqi Embassy in Lisbon. The other is suspected of beating and kicking the boy while he was on the ground.
Reports said that the 17-year-old twins may already have fled Portugal.
G Air, the flying school where one of the brothers was studying, said on its Facebook page that it had begun the expulsion process of an unidentified student who was involved in a bar brawl.
“We are in solidarity with the family of the young man who was beaten,” the school said. “The actions of the student are intolerable and damaging the good name of the school and all its students and employees,” it added. “According to the school's code of conduct the process of expulsion has been initiated.”
