Kurdish-American Faces Trial Orchestrated by Iran-Backed Forces in Iraq Sara Saleem returned to Iraq seeking justice for her abduction and stolen business. Instead, she’s being prosecuted in a court system shaped by Tehran’s proxies. By Jacob Wirtschafter/The Media Line Sara Saleem stood silently as the judge refused to hear her witnesses and dismissed documents that […]
World
The Media Line: Kurdish-American Faces Trial Orchestrated by Iran-Backed Forces in Iraq

Audio By Carbonatix
Kurdish-American Faces Trial Orchestrated by Iran-Backed Forces in Iraq
Sara Saleem returned to Iraq seeking justice for her abduction and stolen business. Instead, she’s being prosecuted in a court system shaped by Tehran’s proxies.
By Jacob Wirtschafter/The Media Line
Sara Saleem stood silently as the judge refused to hear her witnesses and dismissed documents that had once promised justice. Nearly a decade after she was kidnapped in the southern Iraqi city of Basrah, the woman who returned to Iraq to rebuild her life now faces prosecution—while her alleged abductors walk free.
A US citizen of Kurdish descent, Saleem came back to Iraq in 2023 seeking redress following a 2014 kidnapping during which her business was seized. Armed with court files, witness statements, and support from the FBI’s legal attaché in Baghdad, she expected due process. Instead, her case has morphed into a high-stakes showdown with Iran-aligned power brokers entrenched in Iraq’s judiciary.