An Iraqi flag. (Credit: AFP)
Two protesters in Iraq's southern city of Nasiriyah were shot dead Wednesday in clashes with security forces at a rally against an activist's prison sentence, a health official told AFP.
"Two protesters were shot dead" in the clashes and 21 others were wounded, including five by gunfire, said Hussein Riyad, a spokesman for the Dhi Qar provincial health ministry.
Activist Haidar al-Zaidi, 20, was sentenced to three years in prison over a disputed tweet deemed insulting to a pro-Iran paramilitary force, according to court documents seen by AFP Wednesday.
On Monday, the court in the capital Baghdad delivered its verdict, which Zaidi can appeal.
New York-based advocacy group Human Rights Watch called on the Iraqi authorities not to use the courts as a "tool to suppress peaceful criticism" and called for the activist's immediate release.
Zaidi was prosecuted over a post, long since deleted from his Twitter account, criticising the slain deputy commander of the paramilitary Hashed al-Shaabi force, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis.
Muhandis was killed in a US drone strike in Baghdad in January 2020 alongside Iranian foreign operations commander General Qasem Soleimani.
"Two protesters were shot dead" in the clashes and 21 others were wounded, including five by gunfire, said Hussein Riyad, a spokesman for the Dhi Qar provincial health...