Iraqi jailed over tweet ‘insulting’ pro-Iran paramilitaries

BAGHDAD: An Iraqi activist has been sentenced to three years in prison over a disputed tweet deemed insulting to a pro-Iran paramilitary force, court documents seen by AFP on Wednesday showed.

Haidar al-Zaidi, 20, had written on Facebook on Sunday that he faced charges of “insulting state institutions”. On Monday, the court delivered its verdict, which Zaidi can appeal.

New York-based advocacy group Human Rights Watch called on the Iraqi authorities not to use the courts as a “tool to suppress peaceful criticism” and called for the activist´s immediate release.

Zaidi was prosecuted over a post, long since deleted from his Twitter account, criticising the slain deputy commander of the paramilitary Hashed al-Shaabi force, Abu Mahdi al-Mohandis. Screen grabs of the disputed tweet were shared by accounts close to the Hashed.