The Iraqi government said it had arrested the killers of journalist and security expert Hisham al-Hashemi. However, Iraqis are demanding investigations uncover the group behind the murder of Hashemi and other activists. They believe the official statements and the perpetrator's confessions neglected to address the motive for the assassinations and the parties that ordered the executions.
The Iraqi state television aired a video of a suspect, who worked in the Ministry of Interior, confessing to the killing.
Many said that the Iraqi authorities proved they fear the groups behind these murders and cannot confront them, which means that the real perpetrators will not be held accountable.
Also, unofficial reports accuse the perpetrator of having affiliations with the Iraqi Hezbollah Brigades, saying the assassination was executed based on orders issued by a lower-level commander in the militia.
Iraqi authorities only said that the perpetrator belongs to an outlaw party.
The novelist, the winner of the Arab Booker Prize, Ahmed Saadawi, was among the first to condemn the "incomplete confessions," demanding to know who killed Hashemi.
For his part, the Sheik of the Kenana tribe in Iraq, Adnan al-Danbos, denounced the convict and disavowed him from the tribe.
Danbos said in a statement that the tribe disavows this act of the murderous criminal convicted of committing the assassination of Hashemi, stressing that killers and criminals do not represent the Kenana tribe.
He called on the executive and judicial authorities to impose the most severe penalties and just retribution on the murderer and those who planned the crime.
Several observers believe that the authorities announced the arrests and the convict's confessions at this time to avoid a new wave of protests and cover up its failures, especially after the fire incident at al-Hussein Hospital.
Activists in Iraq and around the world will hold several protests Sunday calling to end impunity for perpetrators of violations.
The National Campaign to End Impunity in Iraq has been planning for weeks to launch protests in an attempt to pressure the authorities to hold the killers accountable and bring them to justice.
Protests are scheduled in the US, Sweden, Finland, Britain, France, Canada, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Switzerland.
Activist and one of the movement's organizers, Maan al-Jizani, said that the campaign to end impunity is led by independent journalists and activists inside and outside Iraq and seeks to draw the attention of the international community to a fundamental problem that constitutes a significant obstacle to Iraq's stability, security, and prosperity.
The campaign calls for maximum pressure on US and EU decision-makers, as partners of Baghdad, to push them to change their policies in Iraq that are based on providing unconditional support to successive governments without assessing their performance in running the country and committing massive human rights violations.
