Iraqis Rally Online to Release Youth Protestors From Jail

Iraqi social media has been flooding with calls to release hundreds of youth protestors who had been jailed following their participation in anti government demonstrations that started in October 2019, in what has been known as the "Iraqi revolution."

Even though demonstrations were interrupted by the COVID19 outbreak several weeks later and did not result in major changes in Iraqi politics, many demonstrators have remained in jail for more than two years.

As a result, online people have been tweeting using the hashtag #أنقذوا_سجناء_تشرين "Rescue October's prisoners" demanding quick steps by the government to release them, asking officials to be more tolerant of peaceful protests and insisting on all parties respecting the right to demonstrate peacefully.

This latest online campaign has followed public outrage over reports that Iraqi President Barham Saleh was preparing to sign a presidential pardon for drug trafficker Jawad Louay Al-Yasseri, son of former Najaf governor. 

Translation: "Someone explain this to me; a drug trafficker receives a pardon from the president because his father is a governor and a member of a political party, but the October revolutionaries who wanted a decent and safe country are arrested. What law is this? What constitution do we live under? Stop this chaos before so much anger engulfs Iraq."

Social media users continued to compare the continued detention of peaceful protestors who demanded reforms in the country battling corruption, unemployment, and poverty, with the convicted drug trafficker who was about to receive the pardon.