A German woman kidnapped earlier this week in Baghdad has been released, according to Iraqi officials.
Iraqi military spokesman Yahya Rasool said in a statement on Friday that Hella Mewis was released by the security forces, without providing additional details.
A spokesman for the Iraqi Supreme Judicial Council, Abdelsattar Bayraqdar, said the overnight operation had been backed by an investigative tribunal in the Iraqi capital.
“We are still investigating this crime,” he said.
Mewis has lived in Baghdad for several years, where he worked in the establishment of the Bait Tarkib collective, which aims to promote the work of young local artists.
She was kidnapped by unidentified attackers shortly after leaving her office at the art collective on Monday.
“He was riding his bike when two cars, one of them a white truck [of the type] used by some security forces, they were seen kidnapping her, “a security source quoted the AFP news agency at the time.
Mewis’s phone was not yet available on Friday and his friends had not heard from him. The German embassy in Baghdad had no immediate comment.
A friend of Mewis told AFP that she was concerned about the murder of Hisham al-Hashemi, an Iraqi scholar who had supported protests against the establishments that erupted last year amid mounting frustration at corruption, lack of services. basic and persistent economic problems.
“Talk to her [Mewis] last week and she was also very involved in the protests, so she was nervous after the murder, “said the friend, Dhikra Sarsam.
In May, a United Nations report said Dozens of Iraqi protesters had disappeared during five months of protests. The report did not mention who might be behind the kidnappings, but noted “the involvement of armed actors with substantial levels of organization and access to resources.”
The past year has also seen an increase in foreign kidnapping.
On New Year’s Eve, two French independent journalists were held hostage for 36 hours and three French NGO workers were held for two months.
In both cases, neither the kidnappers nor the conditions of their releases were disclosed.
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SOURCE:
Al Jazeera and news agencies
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