Published date: 22 February 2021 17:00 UTC | Last update: 1 month 1 week ago
The sentencing of two Iraqi Kurdish journalists and three activists, with one saying he was threatened into giving a false confession, days after the Kurdish prime minister accused them of being spies, has raised questions about the independence of the region s judiciary.
On 16 February, journalists Sherwan Amin Sherwani and Guhdar Zebari, together with activists Shvan Saeed, Ayaz Karam and Hariwan Issa, were found guilty by Erbil s Second Court of First Instance of endangering the national security of the Kurdistan Region and were each sentenced to six years in prison.
A week prior to the ruling, Masrour Barzani, prime minister of the Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), claimed in a press conference that the detainees were neither activists nor journalists. Some of them were spies. They spied for other countries… Some were saboteurs .