Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al Kadhimi met with a teen protester abused by security officers on Monday and told him the men were in custody and would face trial.
Hamid Saeed, 16, was reportedly assaulted by three members of the Interior Ministry’s Law Preservation Forces and stripped naked, with videos of the abuse shared online.
He and his mother were threatened with sexual assault, he was also beaten and had his hair cut with a blade.
Videos of the incident and of the boy explaining what happened have gone viral in Iraq, sparking a backlash against security forces accused of heavy-handed tactics that have caused over 500 deaths in the months of anti-government street protests.
When teenager Hamid Saeed’s family saw videos circulating on social media last week showing him being abused by Iraqi security forces, they hoped he was still alive, having looked for him in vain since he disappeared 10 weeks ago.
On Saturday, the 16-year-old Saeed was released from custody. On Monday, wearing a baseball cap and plaid shirt, he was received by Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi, who said those who had beaten up Saeed had been suspended from duty and referred to trial after an investigation.
Back in May, Saeed was selling water bottles and taking part in an anti-government protest on Baghdad’s Tahrir Square when a bottle fell to the ground. As he bent down to pick it up, interior ministry forces detained him, accusing him of wanting to throw stones at them, he told Reuters from his home.
Saeed said that security forces beat him up while he was briefly held, tore up his clothes, and cut his hair.
He later returned to Tahrir Square but got arrested again when he got into a fight with another man who had accused him of stealing a bicycle.
He said he was then held in a Baghdad police station for about 10 weeks and not allowed to contact his family.