Pat Dollard | Young Americans

Basra, Feb 12, (VOI) – An official in charge of Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr’s office in Basra condemned all forms of assaults on journalists, demanding the release of a British journalist kidnapped recently by unidentified gunmen in Basra.

“Al-Sadr’s office in Basra is denouncing all forms of assaults on journalists all over Iraq in general and Basra in particular,” Harith al-Azhari told Aswat al-Iraq – Voices of Iraq – (VOI) by telephone.

“We demand those who kidnapped the foreign journalist in Basra to listen attentively to the voice of al-Sadr’s office and release the foreign journalist,” he said, adding “national powers in Iraq are against the occupation forces not against the foreign civilians, particularly journalists.”

On Monday, police said a British journalist and his interpreter were kidnapped by unidentified gunmen near Qasr al-Sultan hotel in central Basra on Sunday.

“Gunmen in two vehicles kidnapped British journalist Butler Richard, who works for the CBS news foundation, and his Iraqi interpreter and led them to an unknown place,” a police source, who asked for anonymity, told VOI.

Richard and his interpreter were guests at the Qasr al-Sultan hotel in central Basra and were on a press mission, the source added.
The oil-rich port city of Basra lies 590 km south of the Iraqi capital Baghdad.

Earlier on Tuesday, Policemen found the body of an Iraqi journalist two days after he disappeared in central Baghdad, the chief of the young journalists league said.

“The body of journalist Hisham Majout Hamdan was removed to a morgue on Tuesday morning after being found by Iraqi policemen in the area of Bab al-Sheikh, central Baghdad,” Haider Hassoun told VOI.

“Hamdan has gone out of the league headquarters to buy stationery from Baghdad markets on Sunday but disappeared and we knew nothing about him until his body was found at the morgue today,” Hassoun said.

Hamdan, 27, a member of the league, was married and had two children. He worked for al-Siyassa Wa al-Qarar and al-Akhbar newspapers after the fall of the former regime.

The Journalistic Freedoms Observatory (JFO), in a statement, said that with the “killing of Hamdan, the total number of Iraqi and foreign media people killed since 2003 has reached 230.”

“Of this number, 125 journalists and 51 technicians and assistants were killed over their press activities while ambiguity is surrounding the other criminal operations that targeted journalists and technicians indirectly not due to their press work,” the JFO said.
Some 62 journalists and assistants were kidnapped and mostly killed but still 14 of them are considered missing, the JFO statement read.
The Iraqi press watchdog offered condolences to Hamdan’s family and workers at the young journalists league.