ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Protesters who claim they were threatened and tortured by Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr’s armed militiamen in Baghdad are fleeing to Erbil to avoid being jailed under Iraq’s counterterrorism law.
Ibrahim al-Jabiry, the head of Sadr’s office in Baghdad, has strongly rejected the accusations of torture.
Sadr’s Saraya al-Salam militia, known as the ‘blue hats’ for their distinctive headwear, had been participating in Iraq’s nationwide anti-government protests to protect the movement from armed pro-government factions.
The blue hats were an essential part of the movement since it began on October 1 last year. However, on January 24, Sadr ordered them to withdraw as he threw his support behind the new prime minister designate Mohammed Tawfiq Allawi.
As a result, Iraqi security forces and pro-government militias attack the protesters in Baghdad and other southern and central cities, burning their tents and abducting activists.
In early February, the blue hats returned to Tahrir Square to rejoin the movement after Sadr appeared to flip in the protesters’ favor once more.
Now it appears the blue hats are attempting to seize control of the movement, occupying public spaces previously held by the protesters, including the iconic ‘Turkish Restaurant’ tower next to Baghdad’s Tahrir Square.
Muthana*, 26 and from Kirkuk, was among the protesters occupying the Turkish Restaurant. He told Rudaw English on Friday that he and two other protesters guarding the tower had received death threats from Sadrists after refusing to let them issue a statement from its public platform on February 1.
The blue hats returned to the Turkish Restaurant later the same day and took it by force.
The unfinished building overlooking Tahrir Square had been held by the protesters for several months, becoming an icon of the movement, decorated with slogans demanding jobs, services, an end to corruption, and the overthrow of the post-2003 political order.
“Me and two other protesters were responsible for the stage at the Turkish Restaurant, where protesters would releases statement, and prevented the Sadrists from giving a partisan statement on February 1,” Muthana said.
“Instead we released a statement on February 1 after the Sadrists left announcing that protesters and Tahrir Square do not support any candidate to lead the government nominated by the political parties.”
Muthana was forced to flee the Turkish Restaurant when the Sadrists stormed the building.
Muthana and the other threatened protesters immediately drove north to Erbil, the capital of semiautonomous Kurdistan Region of Iraq.
“I and two other protesters drove to Erbil later that night, but unfortunately not all of us were able to flee,” Muthana said.
“Close to a dozen of our fellow protesters in the Turkish Restaurant building were detained by Sadr’s Saraya al-Salam militia and they suffered severe torture at their hands.”
Muthana said he and his friends continued to receive threatening phone calls from the Sadrists.
On February 7, they decided to return to Baghdad to continue protesting.
Before leaving Erbil, Muthana sent Rudaw English a statement to publish in the event of his death.
“My name is [….] from Kirkuk, Wahid Athar neighborhood,” the statement reads.
“Saraya al-Salam militia is following me to arrest me after I prevented the Sadrists from releasing their partisan statement and read Muqtada al-Sadr’s tweet on the Tahrir Square stage of the Turkish Restaurant, as the stage is only for the official statement of the movement and not a stage for the parties or the clerics to take advantage of and release their statement.”
“After three hours of preventing the Sadrists from reading their statement on the stage, later that night a huge wave of blue hats attacked the Turkish Restaurant building and forced all of us to flee and run away after we resisted for several hours.”
“Unfortunately they detained some of our fellow protesters and tortured them in order to confess where the others were, by which they meant me and my friends who fled to Erbil.”
“I got several threatening phone calls from the blue hats to go back to Baghdad or an official arrest warrant will be issued against me,” Muthana’s statement adds.
Osamah*, 24 and from Baghdad, is one of Muthana’s friends who did not leave Baghdad. He was detained and says he was tortured by the blue hats inside the Turkish Restaurant for several hours on Thursday before he managed to escape.
According to Osamah, the blue hats detain protesters and then hand them over to the national security forces to be formally arrested under Iraq’s counterterrorism law.
The Iraqi government now considers Iraq’s young protesters as terrorists and will begin prosecuting them under Anti-Terrorism Law (No. 13 of 2005). Sentences can include life in prison or execution by hanging.
“I was inside the building when they [the blue hats] attacked the Turkish Restaurant building, but I had the chance to run away at that time, but got detained on Thursday alongside many other protesters,” Osamah told Rudaw English on Friday.
Osamah also claims the blue hats “tortured and beat” him alongside other protesters inside the building for several hours on Thursday before he other protesters manage to escape.
He was beaten on his back, legs, and hands with “cables and batons”, he said.
Rudaw English has blurred images of Osamah’s injuries to conceal identifying features, including his face and distinctive tattoos.
“We strongly reject those baseless accusations, and believe that those are claims of the troublemakers and not protesters,” Sadr’s office chief Jabiry told Rudaw English on Monday.
“We already had a meeting with the protesters and reached an agreement to hand the Turkish Restaurant back to the real protesters and not troublemakers who were under the command of foreign agendas and conspiracy,” he added.
Jabiry claimed the blue hats have completely withdrawn from Tahrir Square following the agreement between the Sadrists and protesters.
Sadr’s blue hats were accused of using live ammunition against the protesters in Najaf last week, killing at least 11 protesters and injuring 210 more. Several tents were also set on fire.
Protests are ongoing in many areas in central and southern Iraq as activists reject the appointment of prime minister designate Allawi.
Allawi, a former communications minister, is seen by protesters as part of the same political establishment they perceive as corrupt.
Protesters have been on the streets of Baghdad and the mainly Shiite-majority provinces of the south since October 1 to protest against rampant corruption and the political system.
They have been met with deadly violence, including live ammunition and military grade tear gas canisters. More than 600 protesters have died and at least 18,000 injured according to Human Rights Watch.
*Rudaw English has changed names in this article to protect protesters identities
