'Hung by My Wrists and Beaten': The Harrowing Ordeal of Elizabeth Tsurkov

Fri Dec 12 2025 17:57:20 GMT+0200 (Eastern European Standard Time)

Elizabeth Tsurkov, an Israeli-Russian doctoral student, recounts her two and a half years of captivity in Iraq, enduring severe torture at the hands of her captors and her struggle for survival.

In a shocking interview, Elizabeth Tsurkov shares her traumatic experience as a captive of Iraqi militants where she faced extreme torture, including being hung and beaten. Released after 903 days, Tsurkov reflects on the psychological scars left by her ordeal and the geopolitical complexities surrounding her abduction.

Elizabeth Tsurkov, an Israeli-Russian woman held captive for two and a half years by militants in Iraq, has revealed the desperate lengths she went to in order to survive the brutal torture inflicted on her. Speaking to BBC Newshour, Ms. Tsurkov, who was freed in September, described enduring extreme abuse for the first 100 days, leaving her physically and mentally scarred.

My health is not great, Tsurkov stated during the interview, conducted in central Israel where she is recovering from her ordeal. The first four and a half months of her captivity were particularly brutal, involving whipping, sexual abuse, and electrocution. In March 2023, the 39-year-old Princeton doctoral student was living in Baghdad to conduct fieldwork for her PhD when she was kidnapped after meeting a woman who did not show up.

Initially, her captors were unaware of her Israeli citizenship, but once they accessed her phone, the torture began. Ms. Tsurkov explained that the methods employed against her included being hung from the ceiling and the painful 'scorpion' method, which often leads to dislocated shoulders.

Believing she was being held by members of the Iranian-backed Kataib Hezbollah, Tsurkov attempted to survive by inventing confessions that would prevent further torture, but her captors grew greedy, continuing the cycle of abuse. Remarkably, after 100 days, the torture stopped when she was moved to another location, though she remained in solitary confinement.

According to Tsurkov, a pivotal moment in her release came when Mark Savaya, a U.S. businessman and political figure, intervened. He conveyed to Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani that there would be severe consequences for the leadership of Kataib Hezbollah if Tsurkov was not released within a week, leading to her eventual freedom.

While Iraq’s prime minister credits the country’s security services for her release, Tsurkov asserts that her story highlights the ongoing power struggles in Iraq and the pervasive influence of militia groups. Now, she is focusing on her recovery while resuming her academic pursuits, emboldened yet understandably scarred by her harrowing experience.