By Amnesty International. Any opinions expressed are those of the author(s), and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News.
Iraq: Release Kidnapped Scholar
The Iraqi government should take steps to ensure the immediate and unconditional release of Elizabeth Tsurkov, a US-based scholar who was kidnapped in Iraq on March 21, 2023, four organizations including Amnesty International have said.
Tsurkov, a dual Russian and Israeli citizen, is a doctoral student in the Politics Department at Princeton University in the US. New Lines Magazine reported that she was in Iraq conducting field research on Shia movements in Iraq when she was kidnapped in the Karrada neighborhood of Baghdad. Her family said that she had emergency spinal surgery to treat a herniated disc eight days before she was abducted.
"Elizabeth Tsurkov's abduction falls within a pattern of targeted kidnappings in Iraq by state-affiliated and non-state actors, all carried out with impunity," said Adam Coogle, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. "The Iraqi government is responsible for doing everything it can to ensure her safety and release and for holding her abductors accountable."
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