The young man beaten by three policemen few days ago in a town of Mosul, Nineveh province, was released on bail after two days in prison.
On Wednesday, July 5, 2023, three policemen attacked a young man with sticks in front of the national card office in Gruzer sub-district (west of Nineveh), according to a video shared with KirkukNow by an eyewitness.
The young man being beaten is Eidan Saadoun Murad, 18, who visited the office of National Card in GIruzer to apply for national card.
Saadoun Murad, Eidan's father, told KirkukNow, “Although my son was beaten, an arrest warrant was issued for him. He was put in prison the same day and was supposed to be detained until July 16 but thanks to efforts of some figures of Shingal, he wa released on bail on July 7 and returned home.”
As the video shows, Eidan is holding a yellow file, first a policeman pushes him and pulls a stick on him, then two other policemen do the same and fall on him with sticks, each of them pulling at least 10 sticks on him.
The young man tries to defend himself, but cannot until the people in front of the office help him.
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. Video shared with KirkukNow by an eyewitness
"Some say Eidan tried to take turns to enter the office early, but that is not true. He just wanted to ask a policeman and they responded by beating him," Eidan's father insisted.
Idan's family has been displaced from their town into the camps for the Internally Displaced Persons IDP in adjacent Iraqi Kurdistan Region IKR since 2014 and returned to Shingal (Sinjar) in 2020.
"Eidan has been released on bail but his case is still pending in court. The young man's father is a policeman and has filed a complaint against the three policemen," a police source told KirkukNow on the condition of anonymity.
The three policemen accused Eidan of "tearing their official uniforms while defending themselves and saying inappropriate things.”
"We don't know if it's the fault of the police or the young man, so we are waiting for the court to decide the case," the source added.
The Gruzer national card office, in front of which the incident occurred, opened in mid-June and is crowded daily due to high demand on the new national card by the Iraqi ministry of interior.
The Nineveh police command said in a statement on July 5 that the three policemen were detained and a committee of inquiry was formed to investigate the incident and take legal action against those responsible.
According to Article 29 of the Iraqi Constitution states 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 up to three years in prison.
Fakhr Khalaf, a Yazidi religious figure who is closely aware of the case, told KirkukNow, “As a religious and social duty, I contacted several security agencies at the beginning of the incident to prevent the problem from escalating and to sort it out.”
“Fortunately, following our efforts and other parties, Eidan is released on bail.”
Grauzer, located in western Nineveh, is a disputed area between the Iraqi federal government and the (KRG). Like other non-Muslim Ezidi (Yazidi) areas, it was attacked by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in August 2014. For several years, most of its residents were living under tents in the IDP camps of Duhok Northern Province.
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.
