Iraqi activist sentenced to 3 years in prison over a tweet

By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA and ABBY SEWELL
Associated Press

BAGHDAD (AP) — An Iraqi activist has been sentenced to three years in prison over alleged criticism of state-sanctioned militias, spurring criticism from human rights monitors and local activists. Hayder al-Zaidi, 20, was active in popular anti-government protests that began in October 2019. He was sentenced Monday over a tweet that he maintains he did not write under a penal code section that outlaws publicly insulting any government institution or official. The tweet in question contained a picture of Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy commander of the Popular Mobilization Forces, an umbrella group of mostly Shiite paramilitary groups. It mocked his designation as a “martyr” by many in Iraq and described him as an “agent spy.”