The mayor of an Ezidi-dominant town condemned the attack on a young man by three policemen and vowed to work hard for their prosecution.
Three policemen attacked a young man with sticks in front of the citizenship office in Gruzer sub-district, Shingal (Sinjar) district of Nineveh Province, on Wednesday, July 5, according to a video shared with KirkukNow by an eyewitness.
The young man, wearing a black T-shirt and holding a yellow file, was first pushed by a policeman who beats him on the head with a wood stick, followed by two other policemen who beat him severely with sticks for at least 10 times.
As the video shows, the young man tries to defend himself, but cannot until the people in front of the office interfere to stop the policemen.
"I have spoken to the police station and they have promised to punish the three policemen," Khudeda Hassan, the mayor of the Gruzer, told KirkukNow.
"It is true that the office is very crowded, but this behavior is not forgivable and we do not accept it.
Like most other areas of the war-torn Shingal, Gruzer has two administrations; One is temporary in the city center, formed in 2017 after the events of October 16 when the Iraqi forces ousted the Kurdish Peshmerga and took over control over the disputed territories between Baghdad and Erbil, following the Kurdish referendum for independence, which forced armed groups and administrative officials affiliated to Kurdish parties and the Kurdistan Regional Government KRG to withdraw to the Kurdistan Region of Iraq KRI.
The administration based in town is not officially recognized by neither by the Iraqi government nor the KRG.
Video: Three policemen attack a young man. Shared by eyewitness with KirkukNow
According to KirkukNow followup, the young man is 22 years old and visited the office to apply for the national card transaction, which is one of the busiest offices in the sub-district.
The young man heads to ask one of the policemen, but the policeman shouted at him, attacked him and beat him with a stick.
Mazen Khalil, a resident of Gruzer district, who was there at the time of the incident, told KirkukNow, “I saw the incident with my own eyes. A policeman pushed him away and attacked him and beat him with a stick. Two other policemen also attacked the young man.”
"At that time, people who were there to issue national cards rescued the young man from the police," Khalil added.
The video went viral on social media, provoked resentment of the public against the atrocious act by the policemen.
According to Article 29 of the Iraqi Constitution, no form of violence or oppression is allowed in the family, schools and society. According to Article 413 of the Iraqi Penal Code, anyone who deliberately assaults another person is punishable by three years in prison.
"The young man tried to issue a national card, but he was treated badly. We do not accept this and we will continue to investigate until the policemen receive their punishment," the mayor vowed.
Grauzer, located in western Nineveh, is a disputed area between the Iraqi federal government and the (KRG). Like other Ezidi (Yazidi) areas, it was attacked by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in August 2014. For several years, its residents have occasionally returned to Gruzer from the camps for the Internally Displaced Persons IDP.
In the Ezidi-dominant region of Shingal, only three thousand square kilometers, Baghdad federal and Erbil regional governments compete to establish their rule: three local administrations want to administer the district where several armed groups are deployed.
