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Footage has emerged on social media of a motorist appearing to deliberately target a pedestrian in an incident which reportedly took place in the Erbil neighborhood of Ankawa on June 14, 2019. Photo: social media
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – CCTV footage of an Erbil motorist appearing to deliberately run over a pedestrian following an argument has sparked public outrage and raised questions over the slack implementation of justice in the Kurdistan Region.
The incident took place in the Ainkawa neighbourhood of Erbil on June 14, 2019.
The footage shows an SUV driver exchange words with a pedestrian. The car reverses, accelerates, and then steers onto the pavement, careering into a building.
The pedestrian throws items at the car. The driver again reverses and accelerates, this time crashing into the pedestrian at high speed, before driving away from the scene.
Emerging on social media late last week, the footage has since been widely shared.
“This incident started with a heated argument, then escalated quickly to witness this kind of violence,” Erbil Police spokesperson Hogir Aziz told Rudaw on Saturday.
“The incident happened on June 14. The victim filed a complaint against the driver and we issued an arrest warrant for him. We did not manage to arrest him... he fled and remained at large,” Aziz explained.
“Four months and ten days later, on October 24, the victim withdrew the complaint, so the court closed the case.”
Under the Kurdistan Region’s legal system, cases can be dropped if the victim rescinds their complaint.
“It is an individual’s right to keep a case open or not. At his request, we ended the case,” Aziz said.
It is not clear why the victim decided to close the case, Aziz added. He suggested the two men involved may have reached an out-of-court agreement.
However, on November 20, the Public Prosecutor reversed the court decision to close the case, Aziz explained, on the basis that the incident posed a danger beyond the personal dispute, making prosecution of the driver a matter of public interest.
“With the case now reopened, we will arrest the driver if a fresh warrant for him is issued,” the police official added.
Aziz claimed the victim is “in good health” and, somewhat miraculously, did not sustain any injuries in the attack.
Col. Fakhradin Noori, head of Ainkawa police, confirmed to Rudaw on Saturday that the case had been reopened.
The case will not be closed “until the driver faces the public prosecutor,” Noori said. He could not provide an explanation as to why it had been reopened.
Footage of the incident provoked outrage on Kurdish social media. The culprit’s expensive-looking car led some to demand legal punishment without exemptions for the wealthy or well-connected.
“I am sure he [the victim] was threatened, that is why he withdrew the complaint,” Facebook user Jonas Aula commented in response to the video on Saturday.
“Withdrawing the case in these kinds of incidents is not acceptable, as the driver has committed a ‘deliberate kill’,” Abbas Haji Faiq wrote in a Facebook comment.
Who released the CCTV footage of the incident – some five months after it took place, and just after the public prosecutor’s decision to reopen the case – is also not known.
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