‘My life for my son's life’: activist’s 10-year-old son kidnapped in Baghdad

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — The son of a Baghdad activist who fled to Erbil last year has been kidnapped, he confirmed to Rudaw English on Tuesday, with unidentified men calling for his return to the Iraqi capital in exchange for his 10-year-old son’s release.

Ayoub al-Khazraji, 30, has been an activist since 2011 and participated in the anti-government demonstrations which began in October 2019. He has survived four assassination attempts, the last of which was in September, and received dozens of threats on social media. 

He fled to Erbil after receiving another threat in November, saying he would soon be dead. 

Speaking to Rudaw English on Tuesday, he said, voice shaking, that his son has been kidnapped in retaliation for his naming of militias on social media. 

"I was talking for three days on the Clubhouse application about militias that had threatened me for more than a year and a half, and I have named them, so they kidnapped my ten-year-old son Muhammad."

Khazraji said he was threatened by “resistance” militias, including the Sadrist movement, Kataib Hezbollah, Raba’allah and Saraya al-Khurasani who he says are also behind the deaths of protesters. 

“At 12:30 pm, I received a threatening message from an anonymous account via Instagram telling me to return from Erbil to Baghdad in exchange for my son’s safe return.”

“I am now Ayoub the father, not the activist. My life is for my son's life now”, he said, pausing. “I have no choice but to return to Baghdad and turn myself in to the kidnappers.”

Activists are often threatened, kidnapped and killed for their involvement in the protest movement. Hardline units of the Iran-backed Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), known in Arabic as Hashd al-Shaabi, are widely accused of killing many protesters and voices of dissent.

At least 600 protesters and members of the security forces were killed and more than 18,000 injured since the protest movement emerged, Amnesty International said in January 2020.

Dozens of Iraqis were killed in the protests with guns or tear gas canisters. Others were assassinated, like security analyst and government advisor Husham al-Hashimi, who was killed in front of his house in July.

"We know who killed Husham, for example, but we cannot pursue them," a source previously told AFP, saying his assassins were linked to powerful paramilitary groups.

Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi has repeatedly pledged to hold the killers accountable, but there had been no arrests or public trials, apart from arresting four members of the “death squad” in the southern city of Basra on suspicion of being behind a series of assassinations of activists and journalists in the province, AFP reported in February.

Several other activists nationwide, including women, have been assassinated or have survived attempts on their lives. Most of the slain activists and journalists had criticized Iran's influence in Iraq, including the deadly role played by Tehran-backed militias.