Yezidi man stoned to death in Iraqi Kurdistan, community demands justice
http://aranews.net/2015/05/yezidi-ma...mands-justice/
ARA News
Dohuk, Iraqi Kurdistan – A Yezidi organization said in a statement on Tuesday that the Yezidi citizen Musa Temmo was stoned and then shot dead in the city of Sulaymaniyah in the Iraqi Kurdistan last Sunday.
The victim was working as a guard in a construction company in Sulaymaniyah.
The movement of “Yezidis Across the World” issued a statement, of which ARA News received a copy, saying: “Obviously the heinous crime was carried out against Temmo on religious basis, and perpetrators are most likely co-workers, for the location is under security protection and cannot be penetrated easily unless someone passes through the checkpoints.”
The statement called on the judicial authorities in the Kurdistan Region to arrest the perpetrators as soon as possible to be tried publicly in sessions open to the media.
The movement’s statement also demanded to hold responsible all the Salafist clerics and imams who call for hatred and extremism in the Kurdistan Region. “Some clerics describe the Yezidis and Christians as apostates, demanding their killing,” according to the statement.
Speaking to ARA News, the writer and human rights activist and member of the movement, Dr. Saeed Seydo, said that the crime was carried out Sunday in a place that is well-fenced and can’t be easily accessed.
“According to M.N. (victim’s friend), the victim (Temmo) was threatened, humiliated and demanded to convert to Islam,” Seydo added, pointing out that the Yezidi young man was intending to leave his work next week.
“It’s not the first time that Yezidi workers are insulted, beaten, and even killed. There are many cases that took place in previous years in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region, but this crime exceeded the brutality of all other crimes, as the perpetrators stoned the victim with rocks and one of them shot the victim in the mouth,” Seydo said.
The source pointed out that the company, where the incident took place, is trying to prevent media from approaching the scene of the crime.
In the meantime, the MP in the Iraqi Parliament for the Yezidi community, Vian Dakhil, demanded on Tuesday the local authorities in the city of Sulaymaniyah in the Kurdistan Region to carry out an immediate investigation on the killing of the Yezidi man and uncover the circumstances of the incident to the public.
“We sadly received the news of the young Yezidi man’s death who was working as a guard for a company near the headquarters of a prominent political figure in the city of Sulaymaniyah. He was killed after being mercilessly rocked,” the MP said in a statement posted online.
“As we trust the judicial system in the Kurdistan Region, we stress the importance of punishing all those involved in this heinous crime, whether perpetrators or instigators, compensating the victim’s family in accordance with the laws,” she added.
Dozens of Yezidis demonstrated in the refugee camp of Issia in the city of Dohuk on Monday in protest against the killing of the young man Musa Temmo.
Reporting by: Ali Isso and Dilshad Mohammed
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