Justice ministry denies prison assault allegations as Umm Al-Lool’s lawyer claims TikTok star targeted

BAGHDAD — The lawyer for Iraqi TikTok star and dancer Hadeel Khalid Abdul Rasheed, also known as Umm Al-Lool, has called on the Minister of Justice to investigate an alleged assault. The Ministry of Justice has denied the claims, stating that the inmate was only ‘lightly injured’ during a disturbance involving a prohibited mobile phone.

Lawyer Tariq Al-Shara sent a message to Minister Khalid Shwani, stating, “Almost-confirmed reports indicate that our client, Hadeel Khaled, has been subjected to a severe beating and a bloody assault that may lead to her death inside the prison by unknown individuals, and we have not been able to ascertain the details and truth of the incident.” Al-Shara urged the minister to reveal her condition publicly and to his office ahead of her court hearing, scheduled in the next two weeks.

In response, the Ministry of Justice on Monday denied the assault allegations, stating that Umm Al-Lool was in good health and that her life was not in danger.

The ministry claims that the disturbance occurred after a prohibited iPhone was found in the inmate’s possession.

“Information was received indicating that the inmate had brought an iPhone Pro Max into the facility, which constitutes a legal violation and a security breach. Consequently, a committee was formed to investigate the matter. The committee managed to seize the phone, but the inmate refused to surrender the device, causing chaos and shouting at the committee members. She broke the phone and lightly injured her hand to create a disturbance,” the ministry said in a statement.

Umm Al-Lool was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Rusafa Criminal Court in Baghdad in May, after being charged with transporting drugs from Erbil to Baghdad as part of a trafficking network. In April, she received a separate four-month sentence for creating and distributing “indecent content,” but this case later uncovered an outstanding warrant on drug trafficking charges, leading to her life sentence under Iraq’s Narcotics and Psychotropic Substances Law No. 50 of 2017.

Her life sentence was overturned on July 1 by an appellate court in Baghdad, which ordered a retrial.

The incident involving Umm Al-Lool takes place amidst a backdrop of increasing violence targeting social media influencers in Iraq. In recent months, several high-profile figures have been assassinated or died under mysterious circumstances, including Simsim, a transgender influencer, who was murdered in Diwaniyah in February, and Om Fahad, another social media figure who was fatally shot in Baghdad in April.