After decade in Iraq prison for shooting cab driver, Israeli-Canadian freed by international effort

Benjamin Hassin, an Israeli-Canadian man, was released from an Iraqi prison after being imprisoned for 11 years. Born in Iraqi Kurdistan and raised first in Israel and then in Canada, Hassin returned to Israel as a teenager. In 2014, he visited his grandparents in Kurdistan, where he reportedly joined a local Kurdish Peshmerga militia defending their towns from ISIS.

In 2015, Hassin encountered a taxi driver who threatened to kill him, claiming it was in self-defense, leading to the taxi driver's death and Hassin's arrest and sentencing to death.

The details of Hassin's imprisonment were not disclosed publicly for over a year until Deputy Minister for Regional Cooperation Ayoub Kara shared a video on social media, stating that he was working closely with Hassin's father, Ilan Hassin, to secure his release. International Jewish groups joined the effort to free Hassin. In November 2025, his death sentence was annulled following a sulha agreement, and $250,000 in funds were raised to persuade the family of the alleged victim to accept the sulha.

Former Israeli foreign ministry official Eyal Sisso and lawyer Alan Lowy were credited with Hassin's successful release. Lowy, who frequently visited Sulaymaniyah near the Iranian border, negotiated Hassin's release. Hassin, who endured torture, physical abuse, and severe mistreatment during his imprisonment, will restart his life in Israel after being accepted into the Aish HaTorah Foundation Program in Jerusalem.

Upon his arrival, Rabbi Dovid Rosman, the Aish Yeshiva director, conveyed his acceptance in a letter to Hassin, and in a concluding prayer, Hassin recited the Jewish Sheheyanu prayer.