Hisham al-Hashemi was an expert on the Islamic State and often spoke out about Iran-backed militias in Iraq. (AFP/Getty Images)
PM:03:30:16/07/2021
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SULAIMANI — Iraq's
Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi said Friday (July 16) that suspects had been
arrested for the murder over a year ago of academic and government adviser
Hisham al-Hashemi.
"We promised to
capture... (the) killers" of Hashemi, Kadhimi said on Twitter.
"We fulfilled
that promise," he added in Arabic, English and Kurdish.
Hashemi, a specialist
in militant networks with a vast network of contacts among top decision makers,
was shot dead outside his Baghdad home in early July last year by gunmen on
motorcycles.
Iraqi state TV
broadcast brief clips of the apparent confession of one suspect, 36-year-old
police lieutenant Ahmed al-Kenani.
Wearing a brown
jumpsuit, Kenani confessed to shooting Hashemi dead using a pistol.
According to reported
surveillance footage of the attack shown on state TV, Kenani carried out the
killing with three others, riding on two motorcycles.
Friday's announcement
marks the first reported arrests made over a murder that shocked the country,
where killings of activists have surged over the last year.
- 'Positive step' -
"It is a positive
step towards establishing accountability and ending impunity... and we hope
that all perpetrators are held accountable," Ali al-Bayati, a member of
the Iraqi government's human rights commission, said Friday.
As well as being an
expert on Sunni extremism in Iraq, Hashemi had become outspoken against
powerful Shia armed actors aligned with Iran.
Hashemi's support for
popular protests that erupted in 2019 against a government seen as too close to
Iran infuriated Tehran-backed Shia factions in Iraq's Hashed al-Shaabi military
network.
The Hashed holds the
second biggest bloc in Iraq's parliament and controls vast financial assets.
Earlier this month,
dozens of people gathered in central Baghdad to remember Hashemi, who was 47
when he was gunned down, holding pictures of the researcher and lighting
candles.
He was described by
one attendee as the "best security analyst Iraq has ever known".
An interior ministry
official at that vigil promised that Hashemi's killers would be held to
account.
But many doubt Kadhimi's
ability to rein in armed factions.
A security source told
AFP Friday that Kenani was linked to Kataeb Hezbollah, a pro-Iran Shiite armed
factions in Iraq who Hashemi was critical of in his writings and media
commentary.
Earlier this year, the
US struck the Iranian-backed Iraqi paramilitary force, stationed along the
Iraqi-Syrian border.
In a demonstration of
its clout, the Hashed last month secured the release of one of its commanders,
Qassem Muslah, after he was arrested on suspicion of ordering the killing of
Ihab al-Wazni, a pro-democracy activist.
The judiciary said it
had found "no proof" of Muslah's involvement in the murder.
His release was a blow
to Kadhimi's efforts to win over Iraq's pro-democracy protest movement, which has
seen more than 70 activists targeted in assassinations or attempted
assassinations since 2019.
But the prime minister
on Friday attempted to assuage doubts over his government's ability to hold
rogue actors to account.
"We have arrested
hundreds of criminals -- murderers of innocent Iraqis," Kadhimi said, who
is scheduled to visit Washington later this month.
"We don't care
about media spin: we carry out our duties in the service of our people and in
pursuit of justice."
(NRT Digital
Media/AFP)
This story was updated at 7:49 p.m. EBL