Kurdistan
A group of people accused of extortion and threats on social media have been arrested. Photo: handout/Kurdistan Region Security Council
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A group of people accused of abuse on social media that led to suicides and divorces has been arrested, Kurdistan Region’s Security Council announced on Monday. The ringleader remains at large.
The security council published video statements of witnesses and suspects in which they said the group that went by the name CTS was publishing explicit photographs on social media platforms, mainly on Telegram and Clubhouse where they had thousands of subscribers, partly in order to extort money.
One witness said he joined a social media group on August 19 and saw that they were harassing women. “It was a link I joined. I saw they were publishing photos of women, captioned with their names and other information with the name of the person posting it.”
“If they were asked to delete a post, they would ask for a sum of money or other pictures of women … When they got the money, they would still publish it again,” said the witness.
CTS was administered by several people led by someone going by the name of Govand.
One of the four admins, going by the name of Leo, is a 23-year-old who was arrested in August. He said he would send photos CTS received to Govand who would later use them to threaten people. A witness said victims were asked to pay up to $5,000 in order to stop their photos being published.
The security council attributed many cases of suicide, family break-ups, and divorce to CTS and the threats.
One victim, whose video was published, said she was threatened and asked to “video a certain person naked.”
“Some of my friends whose photos were published talked about burning themselves and many people have become victims. A number of couples have divorced,” she said.
The security council said Govand is out of the country, but his location and name are known.
“The identity of Govand and other perpetrators are clear to us. They are abroad and our teams are in continuous efforts to arrest them through Interpol and extradite them to the Kurdistan Region to be punished for their crimes according to law,” it stated.
Harassment and threats, especially against girls and women, are on the rise across Iraq, the interior ministry said earlier this year.
The security council published video statements of witnesses and suspects in which they said the group that went by the name CTS was publishing explicit photographs on social media platforms, mainly on Telegram and Clubhouse where they had thousands of subscribers, partly in order to extort money.
One witness said he joined a social media group on August 19 and saw that they were harassing women. “It was a link I joined. I saw they were publishing photos of women, captioned with their names and other information with the name of the person posting it.”
“If they were asked to delete a post, they would ask for a sum of money or other pictures of women … When they got the money, they would still publish it again,” said the witness.
CTS was administered by several people led by someone going by the name of Govand.
One of the four admins, going by the name of Leo, is a 23-year-old who was arrested in August. He said he would send photos CTS received to Govand who would later use them to threaten people. A witness said victims were asked to pay up to $5,000 in order to stop their photos being published.
The security council attributed many cases of suicide, family break-ups, and divorce to CTS and the threats.
One victim, whose video was published, said she was threatened and asked to “video a certain person naked.”
“Some of my friends whose photos were published talked about burning themselves and many people have become victims. A number of couples have divorced,” she said.
The security council said Govand is out of the country, but his location and name are known.
“The identity of Govand and other perpetrators are clear to us. They are abroad and our teams are in continuous efforts to arrest them through Interpol and extradite them to the Kurdistan Region to be punished for their crimes according to law,” it stated.
Harassment and threats, especially against girls and women, are on the rise across Iraq, the interior ministry said earlier this year.
Comments
Rudaw moderates all comments submitted on our website. We welcome comments which are relevant to the article and encourage further discussion about the issues that matter to you. We also welcome constructive criticism about Rudaw.
To be approved for publication, however, your comments must meet our community guidelines.
We will not tolerate the following: profanity, threats, personal attacks, vulgarity, abuse (such as sexism, racism, homophobia or xenophobia), or commercial or personal promotion.
Comments that do not meet our guidelines will be rejected. Comments are not edited – they are either approved or rejected.
Post a comment