Man gets death sentence for murder of TV presenter Atwar Bahjat

An Iraqi court sentenced Yussir Fakhir Mohammed to death on 11 October for the murder of Al Arabiya TV presenter Atwar Bahjat and for helping to blow up a Shiite mausoleum in the northern city of Samarra. Bahjat was kidnapped with cameraman Mahmud Al-Falahi and soundman Adnan Khairallah in Samarra on 22 February as they were covering the bombing that destroyed the mausoleum. Their bodies were found the next morning. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 23.02.2006 Al-Arabiya TV crew of three murdered in Samarra Reporters Without Borders expressed its “outrage” over the kidnapping and murder of TV reporter Atwar Bahjat, cameraman Khaled Mahmoud Al-Falahi and sound recordist Adnane Khaïrallah, of al-Arabiya TV. The bodies of the three, who were kidnapped in Samarra, north of Baghdad on 22 February, were found the following morning. Atwar Bahjat, Khaled Mahmoud Al-Falahi and Adnane Khaïrallah had gone to the central Iraqi city to cover the bomb attack on the Shia Muslim shrine for the Arabic satellite TV. Bahjat made two live reports from the scene before leaving late in the afternoon. Police said they were kidnapped just afterwards. A fourth person who was with them managed to escape. The reasons for the kidnapping are not known. “We are horrified by this appalling act,” the press freedom organisation said. “We will never stop repeating that journalists are neutral and vital observers. They are neither combatants nor targets to be shot down. Their work must be protected and respected, whatever their nationality and regardless of which media they work for.” "Our thoughts are with the families of the three journalists as well as their employer, al-Arabiya, the foreign media that has suffered the highest losses in the war in Iraq with six staff murdered since fighting began in March 2003. We offer them our solidarity and support,” the organisation added. "The overall toll is worse than alarming,” it added. “A total of 82 journalists and media assistants have been killed since the start of the war in Iraq. Seven of them have died since 1st January 2006, making this start of the year the most deadly in three years. Atwar Bahjat is the 7th woman journalist to be killed since the war in Iraq began,” it said. Thirty-eight journalists and media assistants have been kidnapped since the March 2003 start of the war in Iraq. Five of them were killed by their kidnappers (four Iraqis and the Italian Enzo Baldoni). The others have been released safe and well. Twenty-three of the kidnappings took place in Baghdad or its suburbs. Local TV al-Iraqiya is the Iraqi media that has been worst hit during the war with ten journalists and media assistants murdered.