TV SHOW TRIES TO CONFRONT EXTREMISM
Condemned terrorists confess crimes on air, meet mothers of victims
EVERY Friday in Iraq, a gripping show on state television beams the alleged confessions of death-row jihadists into homes around the country.
At peak viewing time, it broadcasts gruesome images of their purported crimes before interviewing the convicts, who appear clad in orange or yellow jumpsuits.
Iraq has detained thousands of suspected members of Islamic State, a group infamous for deadly attacks, mass killings and the execution of detainees in orange jumpsuits.
Once a week, a show titled In the Grip of the Law escorts convicted jihadists back to the scene of their crimes under heavy security. By spotlighting IS atrocities, the show aims to stamp out any remaining support for the jihadist group’s ideology, its presenter says.
“I get tipped off by the Interior Ministry, the Defence Ministry or National Security, who captured them,” Ahmad Hassan, 36, says.
“They choose the case to highlight and I ask the Justice Ministry for permission to interview the convicts,” says Hassan, whose show is aired by state channel Al-Iraqiya. The programme is up to its 150th episode and not about to end any time soon.
Dressed in a beige suit and brown tie, on a set meant to evoke a detective agency, Hassan starts his show each week with shocking images.
One episode opens with a photo of dozens of Sunni tribesmen lying in a pool of their own blood, after their 2014 execution by IS in the town of Heet near here.
It then introduces Mithaq Hamid Hekmet, 41, one of those condemned over the massacre, who recounts the killings in chilling detail — even citing the names of others who took part.
In another episode, former IS finance official Mohammad Hamid Omar, nom de guerre Abu Hajjaj, describes his speciality: extorting funds from pharmacies, schools, real-estate agencies, petrol stations and doctors.
He says all of his interviewees have been found guilty and sentenced — most to death, but some to lengthy prison terms.
Hassan says all his convict interviewees take part “voluntarily”, and know participating will in no way alleviate their sentence.
“They do it because they have regrets,” he says.
The show’s most poignant moments are meetings set up between the convicts and the mothers of their purported victims.
In one such scene, the mother of two policemen killed by IS vents her anger.
“Why did you kill my sons Ahmad and Hamid?” she asks three sentenced jihadists, who hang their heads in response.
“They were your friends. Did they ever wrong you? Why did you destroy my family?” asks the woman, dressed from head-totoe in black.
Hassan says the interviews comply with human rights laws.
“We don’t pressure anyone,” he says. “But we’re in a situation of war and it’s best to focus on the rights of victims, rather than those of the terrorists.”