Slain athletes’ families demand justice
AFP/Baghdad
Relatives of the members of Iraq’s taekwondo team who were kidnapped and murdered in 2006 appealed for justice yesterday after Iraqi and US forces arrested a man in connection with the attack.
The abduction of the 15-member national team shocked both Iraq and the world, and came as the country was engulfed in sectarian violence that killed tens of thousands of people in 2006 and 2007.
Iraqi commandos, with American advisers present, arrested the suspect on September 24 in the western province of Anbar where the kidnapping took place, the US military said in a statement.
“The suspect is also believed to be involved in multiple terrorist activities and crimes against the country of Iraq,” it added.
Fifteen members of the Iraqi national taekwondo team—all Shias—were kidnapped in May 2006 as they drove back from a tournament in Jordan through Sunni Anbar province.
Thirteen of their bodies were found a year later, while two others have not yet been recovered.
Families of the team called for the right to meet the suspect and demanded justice.
“We want to ask him ‘why?’” Jabbar Houssuni, whose son Ali was one of the kidnapped athletes, told AFP from his home in the predominantly Shia northern Baghdad neighbourhood of Sadr City.
“What was the reason, what was the motivation? They were athletes, carrying the Iraqi flag—they were peaceful. None of them were armed.”
Adil Hussein Ajar, whose two brothers Ali and Alaa were also among those kidnapped, said he still had “the hope that the killers will be arrested and their (the athletes’) blood will not have been taken without punishment.”
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Originally Posted by taai gihk yahn
