\n Shelly Kittleson pictured in Baghdad on 31 March 2026. [Getty]<\/p>\n
Iraq’s judiciary has sentenced a man to 15 years in prison for the kidnapping of American journalist Shelly Kittleson<\/a> who was abducted earlier this year by a powerful Iran-backed group<\/a>, a judicial source said Monday.<\/p>\n At the height of the Middle East war<\/a>, on 31 March, Kataeb Hezbollah kidnapped Kittleson<\/a> in Baghdad, holding her for several days before setting her free just hours before the United States and Iran agreed to a ceasefire.<\/p>\n Iraqi authorities arrested one member of the group at the time.<\/p>\n According to a document shared by local media, a criminal court on Sunday sentenced Amir Rahim Jabbar to 15 years in prison under an “anti-terrorism law… for the crime of kidnapping” Kittleson.<\/p>\n A judicial source verified to AFP the document’s authenticity, and a Kataeb Hezbollah source confirmed the ruling against one of its members.<\/p>\n Kittleson, who shared a copy of the ruling on X, said she was “grateful to the Iraqi judiciary”.<\/p>\n Kataeb Hezbollah is among several pro-Iran armed groups that intervened in support of Tehran during the Middle East war, claiming attacks on US facilities in Iraq and across the region.<\/p>\n Under mounting US pressure to curb Tehran’s influence, the new Iraqi government of Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi says it is committed to ensuring that pro-Iran armed groups, which Washington designates as terrorist organisations, hand over their weapons to the state.<\/p>\n The issue has fuelled tensions in Iraq, with several groups, including Kataeb Hezbollah, refusing to disarm.<\/p>\n Earlier this month, Kataeb Hezbollah accused Zaidi of engaging in “provocative and irresponsible actions”.<\/p>\n Baghdad was once notorious for kidnappings and attempted abductions, but they have decreased as the security situation in Iraq improved in recent years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shelly Kittleson pictured in Baghdad on 31 March 2026. [Getty] Iraq’s judiciary has sentenced a man to 15…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":52969,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[14],"tags":[94,2836],"class_list":["post-276291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-iraq","tag-iraq","tag-kataeb-hezbollah"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/117205924806996529","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276291","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=276291"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276291\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}