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F.A. works as a teacher in the Karrada district of Baghdad, and says her brother almost ended her life following a verbal argument over the way she wore her hijab. He had choked her, she asserts, and the marks of his hands are still on her neck. According to the teacher, she repeatedly reached out to the community police to report the mistreatment she had experienced and request her brother be kept away from her due to the abuse he subjects her to. Eventually, she received the following response: "We are fasting, go solve things amongst yourselves, why dont you?", or more accurately, "We are not inclined to listen to your complaint".

Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Iraq has witnessed a sharp increase in cases of violence against women an increase that was especially pronounced during the past year. Social media platforms have been inundated with images, videos, and content reflecting womens anger and dissatisfaction with the situation, along with comments expressing their outcry and rejection of the hostile behaviors and domestic violence they are being subjected to. In most cases, it has been noted that authorities suddenly become involved and investigate the circumstances only after the case starts receiving wide media attention.

Established by the Iraqi Ministry of Interior in 2008, the community police in Iraq was tasked with the main role of supporting families, resolving social altercations, and protecting human rights, vulnerable groups, and minorities. It was initially considered a progressive step towards supporting and assisting women, and this has been the case in many instances. However, the harsh reality remains that many women in Iraq continue to live in tragic conditions.

Through photos of the torture and psychological exhaustion evident on their faces and bodies, Iraqi women share messages laden with sorrow and anger amongst themselves. Whether to share the burden of their suffering, seek help, or curse out their abusers, many women seem to share their stories in search of a little consolation or assistance. However, even that aspiration is not always achievable in light of the authorities inaction and failure to protect them as first-class citizens.

In this regard, the Head of Cyber Monitoring at the Community Police of al-Najaf Province, Asmaa al-Talqani, says, "The role of the community police is to resolve issues in a friendly and educational manner, without the need to resort to police stations or the judiciary. This helps to alleviate the burden caused by the daily and continuous influx of reports received by the police. We engage directly with the complainant as soon as we receive the necessary information."

Al-Talqani discusses the challenges they face that impede their work, with the most prominent ones being the tribal nature of Iraqi society and the difficult mindset of the local community. This necessitates "communicating with them for days, solely to persuade them to refrain from harming or even killing the runaway girl, for example."

Many cases have occurred where community police returned girls to their families, such as the case of Tayiba al-Ali. Community police and the local police personally communicated with her family after she informed them that she would be killed by her own family. The authorities obligated the family to sign a pledge to not harm her. Tribal parties also intervened in an attempt to calm the situation. However, the case ended tragically with Tayiba being strangled to death three days later, on February 2nd.

According to al-Talqani, "We have limited powers, and when we encounter cases where individuals refuse to return, we hand them over to the judiciary, and they are then referred to the shelters and homes in the province. However, we cannot forcibly take abused girls against their families' will, as we don't have any legal provisions that align with such action."

She adds, "Our mission is to contain the situation and prevent it from escalating. We provide guidance to parents regarding psychological support and how to deal with victims of domestic violence and extortion, within the limits of our authority. Then we follow up on the case using our own methods, and we are serious about our work. However, there is no work that is free from problems and pressures. There may be minor failures, but women should not hesitate to file reports and complaints or contact us."

There will be no full rights for an individual without them realizing their need for those rights themselves, and without government institutions focusing on granting those rights. Social security cannot be provided to a victim who lives in fear in her own home more than she fears strangers in the streets. A woman may receive hits and kicks, but she cannot make a call or file a complaint seeking refuge for herself. The possibilities here are limited and unsafe, as they are subject to certain powers and conditions. Obedience and silence are the absolute necessity for women to stay alive. This is how this society has built its walls around women, making them completely helpless and powerless over time.

A study on violence against women in Iraq, published on the United Nations Women website, indicated that the absence of a deterrent law to protect women and girls from domestic violence, weak law enforcement institutions, and the proliferation of weapons outside the scope of state control, are all factors that have led to the escalation of violence against women and girls.

In the same judicial study, the investigation found that court decisions tend to be lenient in some of the penalties imposed on perpetrators of domestic violence crimes, and most of these cases end in reconciliation.

M.A., a teacher at the University of Basra, says she called the community police line several times after hearing her neighbor's screams, and she received the following response: "You think we don't have any work to do besides you?" Then the line was disconnected. Two days later, in the same area in Basra province, a banner was put up in mourning of H.A., her 20-year-old neighbor whom she used to occasionally run into by chance when she'd return from university. She says, "No one spoke about her death, and we didn't know the cause."

"The circumstances of death here are mysterious and ambiguous most times, but the features of death are the same on women's faces. Sometimes, when a woman tries to file a complaint against an abusive father or brother, she may be met with religious advice and preaching, as if the community police have suddenly become the morality police," says A.J., a 23-year-old student at the College of Arts in Baghdad. She explains how she reported her father's threats to kill her, and her report was met with these words: "It's just an angry outburst; do not be afraid. These problems happen within families."

For her part, Nourhan, a 19-year-old student at a Baghdad high school, provided us with information and pictures she had stored in the past years about an attempted assault by her younger brother. She would repeat, "He's a monster, not a brother." She spoke of several attempts to report the abuse, but she would hesitate when picking up the phone. Every time she wanted to speak up about what happened, she would get scared and back down, like any other girl who sees the conditions of women and hears about their fates when facing the perpetrator or facing death.

Nour's testimony ends with a bitter smile and a derisive joke, the kind that a person rarely forgets, "If something happens to me, seek justice for me, reclaim my rights, and don't remain silent," as if seeking justice and reclaiming rights after death will produce a result. But if the girl reclaims her rights, will she reclaim her life?

Basma al-Zaidi, the Director of the Women's Affairs Section in the Community Police within the Baghdad Police Directorate, says that "the community police's performance and tasks are humanitarian missions aimed at preserving human rights and promoting civil peace within its authorized powers."

She recounts that during her work in the Women's Affairs Section, she encountered many success stories of battered and abused women who had run away. However, "there are some cases that require days or months to be resolved completely. We try to convey to people that the solutions provided by the community police are friendly and reconciliatory, and that our work is based on the principle of restorative justice between the parties, rather than engaging in conflict and dispute and exacerbating the situation."

As for the reports and appeals received via the hotline, she says, "We do our part by responding to the reports immediately, and if the case needs to be referred to another institution, we also guide and direct the informant to the judiciary within our knowledge and capabilities. We have units and patrols that work on a daily and regular basis to reduce the cases of running away and suicide that have been prevalent among women and teenagers recently. We encourage a culture of reporting cases of violence and are confident that we will do our best and everything in our power."

In a conversation with Iraqi researcher Janan al-Jabri, she focused on mentioning the basics, which is that when we call something a person's right, we mean that society should protect it by law enforcement, education, and upbringing. So how come the relevant authorities are unable to provide full assistance due to the lack of fair laws that enable them to perform these tasks? When it comes to a battered or fleeing woman, the authorities she sought help from might return her to her family, like what had happened last month as reported in the media when the community police returned four abused girls to their homes fearing tribal retribution after obtaining written commitments from their families to not harm them, regardless of the consequences the fleeing women might face upon their return. Where should women turn to in such cases? What are the alternatives?

The community police mentions that they monitor these cases upon their return, but there are reservations due to the confidentiality of their work, and sharing the details of these cases without the consent of the families is not allowed. They also address the ethical aspects of their work, which require them to adopt a certain methodology that has to be near-hidden from the public eye. For example, we asked a group of young people working in the medical field about cases of suicide or abuse that reach hospitals and what actions and procedures they take in turn. The collective response was, "Most of the girls who attempted suicide refuse to have their parents and families with them in the hospital room. They just scream and cry most of the time, and the abusers are often the ones accompanying them. Therefore, we only treat them. As for reporting, it doesn't help because we are harmed, and the patient is harmed even more. Her life may even be in danger."

One nurse mentioned that she once tried to file a report about a married woman who was brutally abused in a bloody and horrific way, with blue bruises on her face along with jaw fractures, but she didn't complete the report out of fear of legal accountability and violating the patient's privacy.

After a long conversation with a member of the division who receives the reports, he stated, "There are what we call empty reports that take up time from police work when they do not deserve it. We are asked to sort out these reports so that we can focus on the urgent tasks. There are cases when we try to call those who filed the reports, but their devices are either off or busy. What can we do in such situations?"

He adds, "We know that blame will always be placed on us under all circumstances, while the real delay and incompetence is not in our system or the police's response, but rather in the government system that is still revising drafts laws without passing any of them to advance or progress our work".

These are endless narratives about the realities experienced by women in every part of the country, some of which are recorded in memoirs and others shared as anecdotes. The reality remains as it is between the testimonies of victims and the discussions among personnel in security and government institutions. How can we obtain our rights and address these cases without waiting for a response from a call that may see our lives end before we can hang up, or even fail to make the call in the first place?

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A broken shield for women? Community policing in Iraq fails the ... - Raseef22

Summary

The United Nations Investigative Team to Promote Accountability for Crimes Committed by Daesh/Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant is reporting for the tenth time to the Security Council, marking new key outcomes towards the fulfilment of its mandate in respect of accountability for core international crimes committed by Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as Daesh).

Following previously reported investigative achievements, the Team successfully launched new lines of inquiry on the development and use of biological and chemical weapons, the destruction of cultural and religious heritage and the crimes committed against various communities of Iraq. The Team has started to be engaged in building criminal case files with its Iraqi counterparts investigative judges, prosecutors and forensic and law enforcement experts against Daesh/ISIL perpetrators who escaped from Iraq and are residing in third States.

The Team, confident in the future adoption of a domestic legal framework to prosecute Daesh/ISIL members for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, is aiming to work with the Iraqi judiciary on key evidence and leads that could support charges related to core international crimes.

The Team will continue to share its expertise and knowledge with relevant jurisdictions, within and beyond Iraq, to hold Daesh/ISIL members accountable for such crimes.

The major evidence-digitization project led by the Team is continuously being implemented and UNITAD is assisting its counterparts in the digitization of records at several courts in Baghdad, Tikrit, Anbar, Ninawa, Kirkuk, Tazah Khurmatu and Erbil. This support includes the provision of training on the management of key evidence, as well as on the physical archiving of records.

The Team is highly dedicated to uninterruptedly providing its expertise, information, and equipment to Iraqi counterparts, in particular in the framework of its digitization project.

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Tenth report of the Special Adviser and Head of the United Nations ... - ReliefWeb

The following report is now acomplimentaryoffering from MEMRI's Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor (JTTM). For JTTM subscription information,click here.

The Sabereen News Telegram channel, which supports Iran-backed militias in Iraq, reported on May 31, 2023 that the Russia-backed Wagner PMC group had posthumously awarded a Russian medal and Black Cross ribbon to an Iraqi fighter named Abbas Abu Dharr Witwit, who was reportedly residing in Russia.[1]

For more about the involvement of jihadi groups in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, see MEMRIs studyThe Jihadi Conflict Inside The Russia-Ukraine War.

According to the post, Witwit who was killed on April 6, 2023 had a residency in Russia. "The Wagner Company grants the families of an Iraqi martyr the most prestigious medal of courage given to a resident of Russia who met martyrdom during the confrontations to liberate the city of Bakhmut," said the post.

The channel also shared a video of a Wagner representative giving the medal and the ribbon to a man who is identified in the post as Witwit's parent. In the video the father who spoke in Arabic language, praised his son, saying that "he was a hero, and he died like a hero, for the sake of freedom,a multipolar world and against the [powers] of arrogance."

The Putin's Friends in Iraq Telegram channel shared an English-language post reading: "[Witwit] selflessly gave his life while defending the ideals of freedom, justice and a multipolar world that America does not control. He dedicated his life to fighting against oppression, imperialism, and injustice. Believing that every person has the right to live in a world free from tyranny and fear, he devoted himself to the cause of defending these values and making them a reality."[2]

Witwit is a well-known Iraqi Shiite tribe that descends from Hilla city in Babil Province and Kurbela Province.

Over the past months, there have been several reports of jihadis who spent years fighting in Iraq and Syria now fighting in Ukraine, on both sides of the conflict.[3]

[1]Telegram, May 31, 2023.

[2]Telegram, May 31, 2023.

[3]See MEMRI JTTM Report:The Jihadi Conflict Inside The Russia-Ukraine War, May 22, 2023.

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Telegram Outlets Linked To Iran-Backed Militias In Iraq: Wagner ... - Middle East Media Research Institute

University of California, Los Angeles, alumnus and associate professor Bobby Rimas of the American legal systems course at California State University, Los Angeles Downtown LA Campus, lectured on the importance of subpoenas and what should be done to ensure compliance on May 10.

Additionally, Rimas indicated that subpoenas allow for parties to learn about information or evidence that may be used for their cases.

Rimas then introduced guest speaker Andrew Beshai, an associate attorney at Larson LLP.

Beshai spoke about the difference between civil and criminal subpoenas, how subpoenas can request for court appearance, document productions or both. Furthermore, civil subpoenas can be issued by any lawyer but not a prosecutor.

Beshai also discussed the Fifth Amendment constitutional right not to self-incriminate.

Prior to his role as a federal prosecutor, Beshai was a trial attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, where he investigated and litigated discrimination cases against state and local entities in Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Louisiana and Colorado.

As a trial lawyer with the DOJ Civil Rights Division, Beshai also worked on complex matters, including taking depositions, developing discovery strategy and arguing motions. He graduated valedictorian from Loyola Law School, where he served for two years as an adjunct professor teaching legal drafting.

Rimas indicated that Beshais presentation was very informative and gave students a clear picture as to the significance of subpoenas and what they should consider doing when assisting their legal teams with such matters.

In addition to being an associate professor, Rimas is a paralegal at the Larson LLP law firm and an adjunct faculty member at the University of La Verne. He is also the vice chair of the special committee on diversity, equity and inclusion for a Los Angeles-based nonprofit organization and a board member for the UCLA Lambda Alumni Association.

Rimas graduated with a bachelors degree in history from UCLA and a Master of Legal Studies degree, cum laude, from the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law.

He is the past chair/president of the UCLA Pilipino Alumni Association and past president of the Los Angeles Paralegal Association.

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Essential Education: Professor, attorney discuss importance of ... - LA Downtown News Online

On May 25, 1996, Kristin Smart was murdered by her classmate Paul Flores at California Polytechnic State University. He walked free for nearly three decades until a podcast helped solve the case.

Kristin Smart disappeared on May 25, 1996, while walking back to her dorm at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, California after an off-campus party. No one saw the 19-year-old again and six years later, in 2002, Smart was declared legally dead in absentia.

For decades, it seemed like no one would ever know, for certain, what happened to Kristin Smart. The police had a person of interest in Paul Flores, Smarts classmate who walked her home the night she vanished and the last person to see her alive. But Flores maintained his innocence, and police were unable to gather enough hard evidence against him.

Then, in 2019, a budding freelance journalist named Chris Lambert created the podcast Your Own Backyard, which covered Smarts disappearance and reignited interest in the case, helping to bring new information to light. These developments galvanized further investigation into Smarts murder, which produced enough evidence to officially name Paul Flores as her killer.

Heres everything you need to know about the case.

Kristin Denise Smart was born on February 20, 1977, in Augsburg, Bavaria, West Germany, to Stan and Denise Smart, who were both teaching children of American military service members who were overseas. The Smarts later moved to Stockton, California, where their children attended school.

In 1995, Kristin Smart graduated from high school in Stockton and enrolled at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, California.

Then, on May 25, 1996, Smart now a 19-year-old freshman attended an off-campus party. She left around 2 a.m., but she didnt leave alone. She was accompanied by three other Cal Poly students, including Paul Flores.

Unbeknownst to Smart, Flores had earned a negative reputation among women at Cal Poly. According to a 2006 Los Angeles Times report, he had been nicknamed Chester the Molester for his behavior at parties.

According to Flores, after he and Smart split off from the other students who had left the party, he and Smart walked toward his dorm in Santa Lucia Hall. He claimed that Smart then headed to her room in the nearby Muir Hall by herself. Kristin Smart was never seen again after that night.

Two days later, Smarts neighbor in her dorm reached out to campus police and Smarts parents, as Smart had seemingly vanished into thin air. It was only because of this students insistence that campus police opened an investigation, as they had initially assumed that Smart had voluntarily disappeared for a brief period and would be back on campus soon.

An incident report from campus police at the time also seemed to judge Smart harshly for drinking alcohol at the off-campus party shortly before her disappearance, according to her family. The report read:

Smart does not have any close friends at Cal Poly. Smart appeared to be under the influence of alcohol on Friday night. Smart was talking with and socializing with several different males at the party. Smart lives her life in her own way, not conforming to typical teenage behavior. These observations are in no way implying that her behavior caused her disappearance, but they provide a picture of her conduct on the night of her disappearance.

Despite the slow start of the investigation, missing-person posters and billboards began to pop up in public places and along roads in the area, offering rewards for information that could help find Kristin Smart.

Soon, two investigators from the district attorneys office were called in to help the campus police with the case, and they quickly zeroed in on Flores. When they interviewed him, they noticed numerous inconsistencies in his story, most notably his changing story about how he got a black eye.

Flores was eventually identified as a person of interest, but he denied any involvement in Smarts disappearance. And despite his suspicious behavior, police struggled to definitively link him to the crime.

In June 1996, the San Luis Obispo County Sheriffs Office took over the Kristin Smart case. The Cal Poly campus was then combed over by police and volunteers alike. When cadaver dogs were brought in to search the dorms at Cal Poly, three of them reacted to what had been Flores room.

Then, in the fall of 1996, a woman named Mary Lassiter was renting a house that belonged to Paul Flores mother Susan in Arroyo Grande, California. During her stay, she found a single womans earring in the driveway that appeared to match a necklace worn by Smart on one of the billboards she had seen of the missing teenager. Lassiter turned the earring over to the police but they lost it before they could mark it as evidence.

Susan Flores house naturally became the focus of widespread speculation, though police only searched it later on in the investigation. Though the backyard was searched several times, no further evidence was found there.

As reported by Yahoo! News, police eventually did find biological evidence of Smarts body at a different Flores property but that was more than two decades after the first investigation. With police unable to build a strong enough case early on, Flores was not initially arrested or charged.

Then, in 1997, the Smart family filed a $40 million wrongful death lawsuit against Paul Flores, still the main person of interest in the case.

During a deposition later that year for the civil suit, Flores invoked the Fifth Amendment 27 times on the advice of his lawyer.

The only answers he provided were his name, his birth date, and his Social Security number. He would not, on the other hand, answer questions about whether he was a Cal Poly student in May 1996, the name of his father, or even if he cooked hamburgers at his job at Garlands Hamburgers.

The tactic seemingly worked, with police soon admitting that without any new information from Flores, the investigation had stalled.

We need Paul Flores to tell us what happened to Kristin Smart, said San Luis Obispos then-Sheriff Ed Williams. The fact of the matter is we have very qualified detectives who have conducted well over a hundred interviews, and everything leads to Mr. Flores. There are no other suspects. So absent something from Mr. Flores, I dont see us completing this case.

In 2002, six years after her disappearance, Kristin Smart was declared legally dead in absentia and Flores was still a free man, according to The New York Times. For several years, the case would remain at a standstill, and the Smarts seemed to be no closer to getting justice for their daughter.

But things started to look up in 2011 when San Luis Obispo got a new sheriff.

When Sheriff Ian Parkinson took the job, he made a promise to the Smart family that solving Kristin Smarts case would be a top priority.

And he kept his promise. Parkinsons department would carry out 23 search warrants and 96 interviews. They also collected 258 pieces of evidence. Through it all, they still had only one suspect: Paul Flores.

Still, the case against Flores was missing evidence. But in 2019, the investigation got some much-needed aid from an unlikely source: a podcast focused on Smarts disappearance by freelance journalist Chris Lambert.

Lambert, who was only eight years old when Kristin Smart disappeared in 1996 and had no initial connection with her family, helped spark a wave of new information about the case that would help lead to Flores arrest.

According to Vanity Fair, Chris Lambert lived about half an hour from Cal Polys campus, and had no formal training as a journalist or documentarian, yet the Kristin Smart case endlessly fascinated him.

One day, he emailed his girlfriend a link to a Los Angeles Times story about Smart, jokingly saying that he was going to solve the case. He also told a writer friend of his about his interest in Smarts disappearance, and the friend told him that she remembered the Smart story from years earlier.

That same friend later emailed Lambert with more information: I cant believe I didnt tell you; I went to school with the guy who walked her home that night. I went to high school with him. We all called him Scary Paul.

This inspired him to create a podcast about the case in 2019, and it quickly became a hit, garnering nearly 75,000 streams on the day that the first episode was posted. As word spread about the podcast, more and more people began reaching out to Lambert with new information about Smart and Flores. Multiple people alleged seeing Flores taking advantage of several inebriated women, and some even accused Flores of sexual assault.

Lambert also began a working relationship with the San Luis Obispo County Sheriffs Office, sharing sources and letting the police interview them before he would. When Paul Flores was finally arrested for Kristin Smarts murder in April 2021, many people including the police and Smarts family looked to Lamberts podcast as a driving force behind the investigation. (Pauls father Ruben was also arrested and charged with being an accessory after the murder, as it was believed he helped his son hide Smarts body.)

Chris was able to fill in a part of the puzzle along with the dedicated members of the sheriffs office who worked this case over the years and the district attorneys office who successfully prosecuted this case, Sheriff Parkinson said of the podcasts impact on the investigation.

Lambert was in attendance throughout the murder trial in 2022, which ended with Paul Flores, who was 45 years old at the time, being found guilty of the first-degree murder of Kristin Smart. He was later sentenced to 25 years to life in prison for the crime. (Pauls father, Ruben Flores, was acquitted of the accessory charge by a separate jury.)

It started to hit me in waves, and I just started crying, Lambert said. I was thinking about where this started, was thinking about my relationship with the Smart family.

Lambert had met Denise Smart shortly after he started the podcast and expressed his desire to share her daughters story the real story, not one that, like early reports, judged Smart for partying the night she vanished.

It was that victim shaming, Denise Smart said. People dont want to connect with that, because its like, Oh, its that girl with the shorts going to a party getting drunk? Oh, well, thats what happens when you do that. And my kids would never do that. Sharing the real story is so important. My friends and I call Chris an angel in disguise.

After learning about the case of Kristin Smart, see how DNA helped to solve a 40-year-old cold case murder of a California kindergartner. Then, dive into these 11 cold cases that were solved thanks to Unsolved Mysteries.

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Inside The Murder Of Kristin Smart And How Her Killer Was Caught - All That's Interesting