28/6/2020
Six months have passed since the assassination of journalists Ahmed Abdel Samad and Safaa Ghali, and the results of the government investigation are still kept secret.
After the gruesome assassination of fellow journalists near Basra police headquarters, while returning from coverage of the popular demonstrations in the province and all parts of Iraq in early January, the Ministry of Interior announced the dispatch of a team comprising the undersecretary of police affairs and a number of investigating officers to investigate the assassination, but the results of the investigation have not yet been made public and the perpetrators have not been revealed in apparent government negligence for one of the bloodiest scenes in the history of the Iraqi press.
Press Freedom Advocacy Association in Iraq calls on the government to stop forming formal committees and justify the demands of the press family, to show the seriousness required in prosecuting the perpetrators, and to inform the public of the results of the investigation, which we know were stranded and delayed by the performance of the former Interior Minister and his handling of all violations files during the height of the protests in the same way.
The procrastination once again opens up the Iraqi authorities’ disregard for impunity, the failure to prosecute or arrest the killers and kidnappers of journalists and gangs targeting journalists, with the aim of paralyzing the freedom of journalism and silencing free voices in the country.
The association also holds the Ministry of Interior responsible for impunity for criminals for not being serious about investigating, prosecuting and detecting perpetrators.
The association stresses its demand that the new government is required to disclose the investigative steps announced by the former minister and to reveal the reasons for its procrastination, and to announce it with a transparent investigation into the assassination of journalists as soon as possible.
