Iraqi authorities release Jewish Israeli-Canadian Benjamin Hassin after 11 years in Sulaymaniyah prison

Iraqi authorities released Jewish Israeli-Canadian Benjamin Hassin from a Sulaymaniyah prison after an 11-year detention, the Jerusalem Post reports.

The outlet says Hassin, now in his early 30s, had been jailed following a 2015 incident in which he shot a taxi driver who, the article reports, had threatened him after recognizing Hebrew; the driver died days later and Hassin was arrested, tried and sentenced to death (per jpost.com).

The case remained largely out of public view until then-Deputy Minister for Regional Cooperation Ayoub Kara posted a video describing coordination with Hassin’s father, Ilan Hassin, on the case (per jpost.com).

According to the report, efforts including a sulha — a traditional reconciliation process — and the raising of $250,000 at the request of Iraqi authorities led Iraqi courts to annul the death sentence in November 2025, paving the way for this week's release (per jpost.com).

The jpost.com piece frames the outcome as the result of a “coordinated international effort” but provides the clearest documentary details on the legal steps: arrest, conviction, death sentence, annulment after sulha and payment, and eventual release (per jpost.com).

The article also traces Hassin’s background: born in Iraqi Kurdistan, emigrating first to Israel and then Canada, returning to Israel as a teenager, and traveling to Kurdistan in 2014 where he reportedly joined local Kurdish Peshmerga to resist ISIS — details the outlet cites from Yeshiva World News (per jpost.com).

The outlet reports the release occurred 'on Wednesday' without giving a calendar date and emphasizes involvement by Israeli officials and Hassin’s family in securing his freedom (per jpost.com).

Confirmed details in the report are limited to the legal record described and statements by Israeli interlocutors; claims about the 2015 incident and the sequence of negotiations are presented as reported by the outlet rather than independently verified in Iraqi court documents available in this reporting (per jpost.com).

• jpost frames the release as the result of a 'coordinated international effort' and emphasizes Israeli interlocutors' involvement (per jpost.com).

• The factual sequence and legal documentation for the 2015 shooting, the trial, and the annulment rely on the outlet's reporting; no Iraqi court documents are produced in the article to independently verify each step (per jpost.com).
• The article states the release occurred 'on Wednesday' but does not give a calendar date, leaving the specific occurrence date unclear in the source text (per jpost.com).

• No source text provides the exact calendar date of Hassin's release in Month Day Year form, which prevents pinning the event to a specific date in this brief (per jpost.com).
• No source text supplies Iraqi court documents, official Iraqi government statements, or consular records that would confirm procedural details of the annulment and release (per jpost.com).
• No source text gives independent forensic or investigative detail about the 2015 killing beyond Hassin's self-defense claim and the reported taxi driver death (per jpost.com).
• No source text mentions whether Canadian consular officials formally intervened or what role, if any, Canadian authorities played in the negotiated outcome (per jpost.com).

• jpost reports '11 years' in detention and a reported $250,000 raised for the sulha (per jpost.com).

• jpost presents the sulha agreement and the reported $250,000 as preceding the annulment of the death sentence in November 2025, which then preceded release, but the article does not provide independent Iraqi legal records to fully document that causal chain (per jpost.com).

• jpost attributes the narrative of coordination and family involvement to Ayoub Kara's video and to reporting from Yeshiva World News for some biographical details (per jpost.com).