Iraq sentences man to 15 years over US journalist's kidnapping

Shafaq News- Baghdad

An Iraqi court has sentenced a man to 15 years in prison for his part in the abduction of American journalist Shelly Kittleson in Baghdad, an informed source told Shafaq News on Monday.

The Central Criminal Court of Iraq, the country's main court for terrorism cases, convicted Amir Rahim Jabbar Lazim under the Anti-Terrorism Law over his role in the kidnapping, the source said. The ruling was handed down by the court's Rusafa bench in eastern Baghdad.

Kittleson, a freelance journalist based in Rome who works with several US and European news outlets, was seized on March 31 in the Iraqi capital. Iraqi officials said the kidnappers used two cars and switched vehicles after one crashed during the getaway southwest of Baghdad, where security forces arrested one of the occupants.

Kataib Hezbollah, an Iran-aligned Shiite armed faction, later said it had freed her, pointing to what it called appreciation for the stances of then-Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani and attaching a single condition: that she leave Iraq at once. Iraqi security officials told Shafaq News at the time that the authorities had taken custody of Kittleson and were arranging her departure.

She was held for about a week before her release on April 7. The group had not previously admitted taking her, though US and Iraqi officials had tied it to the abduction from the start.