Innocent Man Released After 17 Years

Abu Bakr is out, thank God. Hello.

Peace be upon you. How are you, Mom?

Thank God.

Congratulations.

Thank you.

How are you, Abu Bakr?

How are you, Abu Abd?

This is

the innocent man who spent 17

years in prison.

Seventeen years. Then they told you what?

You're released, there's nothing against you.

Acquitted.

Acquitted.

Acquitted.

Yes, after 17 years.

They told me, "You're innocent. All charges against you are dropped."

Congratulations, Mom.

Thank you.

You persevered.

Yes.

I kept following up despite the exhaustion and hardship.

The important thing is that I know he is innocent.

If he were a criminal, we wouldn't pursue this.

That's why, if I didn't know he was innocent and wasn't convinced of his innocence, I wouldn't have gone out and filmed you.

Sheikh.

Thank you. May God grant you success.

You deserve all the best.

May God grant you success, sir.

God bless you.

Thank you. We thank you and your channel.

It's my duty.

You really did your part.

It's my duty, despite everything.

I thank everyone who helped me.

May God set him free, God willing.

You really did your part, sir.

My dear, it's my duty.

By God, if it weren't for you, maybe I wouldn't have gotten out, because I've had a release order for five months, but I haven't…

They got me out. That's the truth.

But may God ease things for you. You really did your best.

How does it feel to be wronged?

By God, it's prison within prison, sir, prison within prison, Haider.

First, I'm wronged, and second, it's something I didn't do. If I'd done it, I wouldn't be so upset.

Something I didn't do.

It won't work. Why am I in prison?

Man, how hard it's been on me. I haven't left a court unvisited.

I went to the Federal Court. I went to the Justice Court.

Now listen to someone else, you know better than I do.

By God, there's nothing left in me after the treatment I've received.

By God, I want to change it, honestly.

What's your name?

Abdullah Abu Bakr.

Abdullah Abu Bakr.

That's just my compound name, and you can't say it's compound.

There.

I mean, at the government offices, because of the postponement.

You can't say anything else.

They asked you during the interrogation.

By God, they humiliated us in the interrogation. They completely destroyed us.

And you know the Baqubah Crimes Office. No one needs to tell you about it.

What year did they take you?

2009.

And my date is that I was arrested in month 11.

On 15/11. They wrote 15/12 against me.

You were supposed to get out in 2012.

In 2012, I got a release order.

They dragged me from Baghdad to here from the Court of Cassation and Retrial in a vehicle.

I came here, and they said I was sentenced without ever appearing before a judge.

They covered it up, and it’s there.

Because the judge tells you there’ll be a release or an acquittal.

How did you sentence me to 40? I wasn’t— I wasn’t even out at that time.

What camp?

So a release was issued. It was issued.

Even though I had a waiver as soon as I set foot in prison, I had a waiver.

I had one, and they didn’t release me.

Not on the 16th or the 12th.

In the video I filmed, if you saw it, when I—

got out, I said, “This Ali won’t come.” I swear.