#Iraq #Germany #Bagdad #Kidnapping
Berlin curator Mewis wanted to promote young artists in Baghdad. Now she has been kidnapped. The Federal Foreign Office in Berlin has creazed a crisis team, and the Iraqi Interior Ministry is also investigating the case.
Berlin curator Mewis wanted to promote young artists in Baghdad. Now she has been kidnapped. The Federal Foreign Office in Berlin has creazed a crisis team, and the Iraqi Interior Ministry is also investigating the case.
Armed men had dragged and kidnapped Mewis into a car the night before in central Abu Nawas. According to Iraqi security circles, the kidnapping occurred near a police station in Baghdad without intervening by the police.
There are also various government buildings in the area near the Tigris River. The Iraqi Ministry of the Interior also formed a special staff with intelligence and crime experts to investigate the case, a spokesman said.
Interior Minister Othman Al-Ghanmi ordered "increased efforts in the search for Mewis", it said in Baghdad. Recordings from surveillance cameras are currently being examined. Borned in Berlin, Mewis has been living in Baghdad for several years.
There she promotes the work of young Iraqi artists at the Bait Tarkib cultural institute - which translates as "house of installation". The house was founded in 2015. Since a while, she has become increasingly involved in politics.
She took part in the protests of last and this year against corruption and mismanagement, Iranian influence in Iraq and the division of power between religious groups. Mewis has been worried since the murder of Iraqi political expert Hischam al-Hashemi two weeks ago,
activist Sirka Sarsam from the non-governmental organization Burj Babel said. At a press conference together with former MP Shoruk al-Abaidschi, Sarsam called for the release of Mewis.
The internationally known Al-Hashemi had shown solidarity with the protests critical of the government last year. Mewis was also involved in the protests, according to her friend.
On the fringes of the weeks-long protests, activists were repeatedly kidnapped or murdered by strangers. Since the end of Saddam Hussein's dictatorship in 2003, political Islam has been reviving in Iraq -
and with it conservative Islamic values that many types of non-religious art regard as prohibited. Many Iraqi artists have a difficult time in their homeland and live abroad.
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