On 12 December, Iraqi security forces raided the home of a prominent civilian activist and human rights defender (Ammar Hamid Rashid al-Khazali) in Diwaniyah governorate and held him at Sunni police station. This incident is part of a series of tight security measures to suppress freedom of expression and restrict freedom of demonstration and peaceful assembly, and a systematic arrest campaign against activists and freedom of expression.

We are a group of activists, human rights defenders and civil society organizations demanding that the Iraqi Government provide the necessary physical and legal protection and urgent release of Omar Al Khazali, in line with Iraq’s international human rights obligations.

The arrest is inconsistent with the Prime Minister’s pledge in his government curriculum to and his call for to file complaints of human rights violations and not to extract forced confessions or the subjection to torture and degrading treatment.

We also call on the United Nations bodies working in Iraq and international human rights organizations to follow up on the violations of human rights in Iraq, in particular the recent repeated attacks against activists and human rights defenders.

Freedom For Ammar Al-Khazali

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