Princeton doctoral student kidnapped in Iraq has been freed. ‘We both started sobbing,’ sister says

In this Sept., 2018 selfie image provided by Emma Tsurkov, right, she and Elizabeth Tsurkov are shown in Santa Clara Valley, Calif. (AP Photo/Eric Tucker, file)

WASHINGTON — A Princeton University graduate student who was kidnapped in Iraq in 2023 while doing research there has been freed and turned over to U.S. authorities, her family and officials said Tuesday.

Elizabeth Tsurkov, who holds Israeli and Russian citizenship, spent more than 900 days in custody after disappearing in Baghdad, the Iraqi capital, as she was pursuing a doctorate focused on sectarianism in the region.

She was turned over to the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad after having been “tortured for many months,” President Donald Trump said in a social media post in which he identified her captors as from Kataib Hezbollah , part of a coalition of Iranian-backed militias that are officially part of Iraq’s armed forces but in practice often act on their own. The U.S. government listed the group, which has not claimed the kidnapping, as a terrorist organization in 2009.

Tsurkov’s sister, Emma, a U.S. citizen who has campaigned for her release, said she was in Washington for meetings this week when she heard the news from Adam Boehler, the U.S. special presidential envoy for hostage affairs.

The sisters were able to connect by phone and expect to be reunited in the next 24 hours, though the details were still being worked out, Emma Tsurkov said.

“I heard her voice for the first time in 2 1/2 years and still couldn’t believe it, and I just melted on the floor,” she said in an interview with The Associated Press. “I heard her voice and she heard mine, and it was the most joyous experience of my life, and we both started sobbing and screaming.”

What Iraqi officials say about Tsurkov’s release

Two Iraqi militia officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the case, said Tsurkov’s release came about as a result of negotiations and not through a military operation to free her.

The officials said one of the conditions for her release had been the withdrawal of U.S. forces currently stationed in Iraq -- which had been agreed upon between Washington and Baghdad last year -- and that the U.S. and Israel would not launch strikes on Iraq.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he spoke with Tsurkov’s family and told them “the entire state of Israel is happy to see her return home.”

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammad Shia al-Sudani said in a post on X that Tsurkov’s release was the “culmination of extensive efforts exerted by our security services over the course of many months.”

“We reaffirm, once again, that we will not tolerate any compromise in enforcing the law and upholding the authority of the state, nor will we allow anyone to undermine the reputation of Iraq and its people,” he said.

Al-Sudani came to power in 2022 with the backing of a coalition of Iran-linked Shiite parties, but since then has sought to balance relations between Washington and Tehran. In a recent interview with the AP, he said he sought closer ties with the Trump administration.

One of the most complicated issues for al-Sudani is how to handle the Popular Mobilization Forces, a coalition of mostly Shiite, Iran-backed militias that formed to fight the Islamic State group. This coalition was formally placed under the control of the Iraqi military in 2016, although in practice it still operates with significant autonomy. Kataib Hezbollah is part of the PMF.

The Iraqi parliament was recently considering legislation that would solidify the relationship between the military and the PMF, drawing objections from Washington. The legislation has not moved forward to a vote.

An Iraqi army spokesperson said in a statement that “following exceptional security and intelligence efforts,” authorities were able to “locate the place” where Tsurkov was being held, “reach it, and subsequently hand her over to the United States Embassy, which will in turn arrange for her reunion with her sister, who holds American citizenship.”

Tsurkov disappeared in March 2023

An expert on regional affairs widely quoted over the years by international media, Elizabeth Tsurkov entered Iraq on a Russian passport to pursue her research.

She made her last post on Twitter, now known as X, on March 21, 2023, when she recirculated a photograph of pro-Kurdistan protesters in Syria. Emma Tsurkov said it was her understanding that her sister went to a coffee shop in Baghdad’s central neighbourhood of Karradah, days after having spinal cord surgery, and did not return.

The only direct proof of life of Elizabeth Tsurkov during her captivity was a video broadcast in November 2023 on an Iraqi television station and circulated on pro-Iranian social media purporting to show her. But officials from multiple countries have confirmed in recent months that she was alive.

There were reports last spring that negotiators were close to a deal, with talks having centered on an exchange, but Emma Tsurkov said at the time that no agreement appeared imminent.

Trump on Friday signed an executive order allowing for the U.S. to designate nations as state sponsors of wrongful detention, using the threat of associated sanctions to deter countries from taking Americans into custody.

One of the provisions specifically noted that the order would apply to cases in which a government is responsible for or complicit in “the unjust or unlawful detention of third country nationals in which cases the United States has a national interest.”

By Eric Tucker.