Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) \u2013 Iraq\u2019s Central Criminal Court sentenced Amir Rahim Jabar Lazim, a member of the Iran-backed group Kataeb Hezbollah, to 15 years in prison under the country\u2019s anti-terrorism law for kidnapping US journalist Shelly Kittleson on March 31.<\/p>\n
Kittleson was kidnapped during the daytime on Saadoun Street in central Baghdad. Armed gunmen pushed her into a silver vehicle, while another getaway car crashed during the escape. Iraqi security forces intercepted the crashed car and arrested Lazim.<\/p>\n
The US journalist was kept hostage for more than a week when Kataeb Hezbollah freed her in early April ahead of a US-Iran ceasefire.<\/p>\n
Kittleson, who has extensively covered the Middle East for publications like the BBC and Politico, expressed her gratitude to the Iraqi justice system on X and affirmed her right to seek compensation.<\/p>\n
This decision marks a rare court step against a major, Tehran-aligned armed group in Iraq.<\/p>\n
The verdict comes at a critical time for Iraq\u2019s new government, led by Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi, which is under intense pressure from Washington to disarm pro-Iran militias and place all weapons under strict state control.<\/p>\n
The effort to disarm Kataeb Hezbollah has pushed Iraq into a severe security and political crisis, as the group has rejected the government\u2019s disarmament mandates and vowed to expand its military arsenal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) \u2013 Iraq\u2019s Central Criminal Court sentenced Amir Rahim Jabar Lazim, a member of the Iran-backed group…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":271910,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[14],"tags":[1711,74243,34,94,2836,8635,377,15823,1705],"class_list":["post-271909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-iraq","tag-baghdad","tag-central-criminal-court","tag-iran","tag-iraq","tag-kataeb-hezbollah","tag-militias","tag-the-middle-east","tag-us-iran-ceasefire","tag-washington"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/117191725888113470","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=271909"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271909\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/271910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=271909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=271909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=271909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}