The Rag Blog: What Happens When the Ransom Isn't Paid?

05 January 2007

What Happens When the Ransom Isn't Paid?

Have you ever wondered? The answer is quite straightforward and rather gruesome.

IRAQ: Minorities living tormented days under sectarian violence
© Afif Sarhan/IRIN

BAGHDAD, 4 Jan 2007 (IRIN) - Like other minority members in Iraq, Mardon Matrood, a 44-year-old Assyrian shopkeeper in Baghdad, has had enough of the country’s sectarian violence.

“Minorities in Iraq are targeted by insurgents and militias, who want us out of the country as they promote what they call the ‘cleansing of Iraq, of non-Muslim communities’,” said Matrood who is living with his family of six in an abandoned government building.

Four months ago Matrood’s family failed to pay a ransom of US $50,000 to kidnappers who had abducted his nephew. The nephew was later found dead.

“We are a poor family…we couldn’t pay [the ransom money] and after two weeks we were informed that the police had found his body near a mosque in Adhamiyah district (northern Baghdad). It was totally mangled, burned and tortured,” Matrood said.

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