Fahim Al-T’ai was described by fellow activists, “the martyr that was a role model for us”. 

The 53-year-old activist was assassinated on the night of December 8, 2019 by unknown gunmen on a motorcycle outside of al-Ansar Hotel in Karbala. A surveillance camera captured the event, and the video was widely shared on social media by activists. The video shows when Al-T’ai got off a motorbike in front of his house, and the moment in which another motorbike with two people arrived and shot and killed Al-T’ai.  

Al-T’ai had participated since the first weeks in the peaceful protests of the Tishreen ‘October’ Movement. Hundreds of people came out to the streets in Karbala to commemorate his death.  In addition, according to Al Jazeera, hundreds joined Fahem al-Tai’s funeral procession on Monday December 9, hours after the 53-year-old was killed in a drive-by shooting in Iraq’s shrine city of Karbala while returning home from protests late on Sunday.

According to Iraqi authorities, Qassem Musleh, Commander of Liwa al Tafuf (militia group under the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), was  linked to his assassination as well as that of Ehab Al-Wazni, and arrested on May 6, 2021.