Families of two kids killed in Baghdad call for perpetrators’ execution

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The distraught families of two young girls - both cousins - who were found dead just 12 hours after they were abducted over the weekend in Baghdad, called on the Iraqi government to hold those responsible accountable. 

Aya Hassan 6, and Fatima Abbas 7 were kidnapped by three suspects in Baghdad's Jamila area on Wednesday.

Just 12 hours later, their dead bodies were found, 25 kilometers from the capital’s Sadr city.

"First of all, we are calling on the state, the interior minister and Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, and all the relevant authorities that just like how they [the murderers] burned our heart, they must be handed over to us," Hassan Majid, the distraught and sobbing father of Aya told Rudaw over the weekend.

The suspects were arrested on Thursday and the families of the murdered girls call on the Iraqi government to execute them as soon as possible.

"We are calling for legal procedures to be taken as well and the murderers must receive a just verdict,"  Tahseen Kamil, chief of the Attab tribe to which the families of the victims belong, told Rudaw.

According to the families of the murdered girls, one of the abductors was a Tuk Tuk driver who was a close associate with them and the kidnapping was done by his Tuk Tuk. And on the day of the abductions, the kidnappers demanded one million dollars from their families via WhatsApp messages.

According to a final report from the Baghdad forensic department, the ransom had been asked from the families after the two cousins had been killed.

The forensic report has indicated that the slain cousins had been tortured and then strangled to death.