A week ago, 57 female Russian citizens serving time in Baghdad's Rusafa prison went on hunger strike in protest against their sentences. According to the BBC, the women, former wives of fighters of the Russian-banned terrorist organisation Islamic State (IS), are demanding a review of their cases and their return to their homeland, where they are ready to stand trial or undergo rehabilitation.

The prisoners insist on their innocence and claim that they did not participate in IS activities, but only accompanied their husbands.

Iraqi courts have sentenced Russian women to long prison terms, and 19 of them were sentenced to life in 2018. They were found guilty of illegally crossing the Iraqi border, aiding and abetting terrorism and committing terrorist attacks  on behest of IS. According to Western human rights activists, the court cases were conducted with irregularities. After the verdict was announced, Kheda Saratova, a member of the Human Rights Council under the head of Chechnya, announced the Russian side's intention to make sure that the convicted women serve their sentences in the Russian Federation.

This is not the first mass hunger strike in Rusaf: in 2023, about 400 prisoners already organised a similar action, but their demands remained unanswered.

So far there is no official reaction to the hunger strike. Human rights activists call for a humane solution to the issue, noting the imperfections of the judicial system in Iraq. The issue of repatriation remains complicated  as it depends on both the position of Iraq and the actions of Russian diplomats.