Shkoi Kurdistan-
Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani said on Thursday he is watching the legal case of five journalists and activists who were handed prison sentences this week by an Erbil court, drawing international condemnation. He said it is the responsibility of the appeal court to review the case.
“It is the duty of the Appellate Court to review the case, relying on and respecting law, human rights, and the legal rights of the defendant and the plaintiff so that everyone feels that their rights are protected,” read a statement from Barzani.
On Monday, seven people, including two journalists, were put on trial for “endangering the national security of the Kurdistan Region.” Five of the defendants – Sherwan Sherwani, Shvan Saeed, Ayaz Karam, Hariwan Issa, and Guhdar Zebari – who had already been detained for several months, were found guilty and sentenced to six years in jail the following day. The cases of two other defendants, including teacher Badal Barwari, have been sent back to the court for further hearings due to a lack of evidence.
The ruling caused outrage in the Kurdistan Region and abroad, including from the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and Human Rights Watch (HRW).
“Today’s sentencing of journalists Sherwan Amin Sherwani and Guhdar Zebari is not only unfair and disproportionate, but it also proves that the Iraqi Kurdistan regional government has finally dropped the pretense of caring about press freedom,” CPJ Middle East and North Africa Representative Ignacio Miguel Delgado said on Tuesday.
President Barzani admitted that “the court’s decision to sentence a number of detainees has caused concern. However, this is not the final decision. As per law, the convicted have the right to appeal the decision.”
“We will observe this issue,” he added, stating they “respect the independence of the court’s decision and the principles of human rights.”
The men were arrested in Duhok province last year after anti-government protests over unpaid wages. Kurdish security forces, known as Asayish, detained over two dozen people.
Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani previously (even before the first court session) claimed the detainees were “spies” and saboteurs plotting terror attacks against foreign missions, and abductions and assassinations. without showing any evidence.
Relatives of some of the detainees have rejected claims of espionage, and said they were not able to see their loved ones for several months.
“The statement by the head of the government was proof that a verdict has already been rendered in their case,” Bashdar Hassan, a lawyer representing a number of the defendants, told reporters outside the court on Tuesday.
President Barzani said that “no party or person has the right to intervene in the affairs of the court.”
“The people of Kurdistan will never retreat from freedom and will not allow the freedom to be used to abort itself and be manipulated,” he said, and called on people not to create a pressurized environment that could affect the final decision of the courts. “Do not do something that can create distrust in courts, law and all institutions.”
The Kurdistan Regional Government Office of the Coordinator for International Advocacy, in a statement on Wednesday, said that both journalists were “found guilty of gathering classified information and passing it covertly to foreign actors in exchange for substantial sums of money.”
It added that the trial was “observed by representatives of diplomatic missions, international non-governmental organizations, the Kurdistan Parliament, and the media.”
A member of Kurdistan parliament, Ali Hama Salih, who attended the session claimed that the court made a baseless decision and no evidence showed to prove the accusations.
