ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi announced on Friday that the killers of security analyst Husham al-Hashimi have been arrested.
“We promised to capture Husham Alhashimi’s killers. We fulfilled that promise,” Kadhimi tweeted.
Arrest warrants were issued in the case earlier this month.
Hashimi was assassinated a year ago by gunmen near his house in Baghdad. His is the highest profile death among tens of murders of activists and journalists over the past year, killed with impunity as authorities have largely been unable to bring the murderers to justice.
Last November, former government spokesperson Ahmed Mullah Talal said two of Hashimi’s killers had been identified, but had been smuggled abroad and the government was working to bring them back. He resigned soon after.
It is widely suspected that powerful militias that are backed by Iran are to blame for the murders.
Iraqi state TV on Friday evening broadcast the confession of one of the people accused of killing Hashimi. Ahmed al-Kinani, 36, became a police officer in 2007. In a short recording, less than two minutes long, Kinani said he received instructions from an unnamed person who gave him the weapon that was used to shoot Hashimi.
”At 6pm we gathered in al-Buaitha [neighborhood in southeastern Baghdad] and he gave each of us a role. Then he said any of you who gets close to him [Hashimi] shall kill him. He gave me a weapon,” Kinani explained.
No details were given about the identity of the person who gave the instructions and provided the weapons. The published confession appears to have been edited to cut out portions of Kinani’s statement.
Kinani said he and three others traveled to Hashimi’s house on two motorcycles, while the person who planned the murder drove a Toyota and followed them. State TV said Kinani was part of an "outlaw group.”
The day after Hashimi’s murder, political activist Ghaith al-Tamimi published previous conversations between him and Hashimi, in which Hashimi said that he had been threatened by the Iranian-backed militia Kataib Hezbollah.
On March 4, 2020, Hashimi in a tweet revealed what he said was the identity of a Kataib Hezbollah leader who was known only by the pseudonym Abu Ali al-Askari. He was responsible for publishing statements on military operations carried out by his militia, especially attacks on the US-led coalition. Hashimi named him as Hussein Mu'nis, a member of the Shura Council of Hezbollah. The tweet angered the militia group.
Tamimi said he himself was threatened by Mohamed Baqer Sulaimani, a member of the militia and personal assistant to General Qasem Soleimani, who was killed in a US airstrike in Baghdad last year.
Kadhimi said his government has arrested “hundreds of criminals – murderers of innocent Iraqis.” He named Ahmed Abd al-Samad, a 37-year-old correspondent for Dijla channel in Basra, and his cameraman, Safaa Ghali, 26, who were shot dead on January 10, 2020. Four suspects were arrested over a year later.
According to Iraq’s human rights commission, at least 34 activists have been killed since anti-government protests began in October 2019. Many promises of justice have been made, but results of investigations have not been made public and there have been just a handful of arrests. The government was criticized for releasing a militia commander accused in the killing of Karbala activist Ihab al-Wazni.
“We don’t care about media spin: we carry out our duties in the service of our people & in pursuit of justice,” Kadhimi said on Friday.
European Union Ambassador to Iraq Martin Huth tweeted that he welcomed the arrest. "Full accountability and justice are needed in this and other cases," he said.
Updated at 7:19 pm
