With its disappearance will turn off a lover of words and of the peace. Alaa Mashzoub, a novelist, a prolific 50 years old, was savagely killed by 13 bullets by an individual on a motorbike, after leaving an event literary in the city. An assassination due to his stance vis-à-vis the iraq policy? “This killing has not yet been claimed and it is not clear what is the motive of the crime,” said police of Karbala. Sign of the sensitivity of the subject, the forces of the order have immediately commissioned a team of top-flight to investigate, and promised to find the perpetrators of the multiple fatal shots fired on Alaa Mashzoub.

“they Are assassinating the word free, beautiful, and honest,” said the AFP Ali Lefta Said, himself a writer, who has participated in a sit-in with other intellectuals and artists from Karbala, one hundred kilometers south of the capital Baghdad.

“It must be very loose to shoot with a weapon on someone who has only words and dreams,” wrote on his page Facebook Ahmed Saadawi, whose novel Frankenstein in Baghdad has enjoyed success well beyond the borders of iraq. “Shame on the murderers and shame to the authorities if they do not find it and don’t judge to quickly”, he added.

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tributes to this great lover of Karbala multiply. Like the messages of indignation, to the breast of the Parliament, where the commission in charge of Culture ensures to follow the investigation. “The cultural scene has lost an author and original creator,” said Sunday the minister of Culture and Tourism, Abdul Amir al-Hamdani. In contrast, all refuse to point the finger of potential culprits, just talking about “non-identifiable” in a country ravaged by violence for decades and which have proliferated armed groups with various allegiances.

A writer controversial in Iraq

This writer of bold was known for his criticism vis-à-vis the foreign interference in the affairs of the country. He was not afraid to talk about political taboos and religious in his writings.

The Union of writers of Iraq has condemned the murder and criticised the security forces for not effectively ensuring the safety of the intellectuals. Alaa Mashzoub, which was active within the civil society of Karbala, is the author of several novels and story collections that have won him literary awards in his country.

The Center for the human Rights of the Gulf (GCHR) has published a statement condemning the assassination of Mashzoub and expresses its “deep concern at the violation of the right to freedom of expression,” and adds that “the persistence of impunity in murders of journalists and writers in Iraq leaves perpetuate a culture of violence. The perpetrators of such crimes and the perpetrators must be brought to justice”.

Sunday, the coffin of Alaa Mashzoub was wrapped in an iraqi flag. Some people held aloft banners with the word “martyr” and déambulaient along a busy thoroughfare in the city of Karbala, with the meaning “land of the suffering and the crossing of the swords” takes on its full meaning.

Iraq, scene of many killings

Iraq has been the scene of several political assassinations during the past year, in particular of activists and critics virulent. In may, the AR has claimed responsibility for the assassination of Faruq Zarzur al-Jabouri, a candidate in the legislative elections of iraq, a few days before the election. The latter has been shot dead by armed men at his home near Mosul, a former stronghold of the islamic State in northern Iraq.

The end of last summer, the deaths of four iraqi women, the model and influenceuse Tara Farès, two of which were murdered under the watchful eye of the cameras, had raised a sense of anxiety in the country.

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