Briefaktion Irak: Journalisten müssen sofort freigelassen werden — amnesty ch amnesty.ch - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from amnesty.ch Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The Kurdish security forces Asayish arrested all five activists and journalists in October 2020 and were immediately charged with “being spies” and “destabilizing national security”. In the case documents made available to the lawyer, Sherwan Sherwani was accused of being a spy based on his activism and travel to attend journalism trainings abroad, including as a result of receiving payment of 5,000 USD from the American Bar Association. The lawyer was not able to review the case documents of the others.
KR-I Prime Minister Masrour Barzani had previously claimed the detainees were spies and saboteurs and accused them of working for foreign governments to plot terrorist attacks. Dr. Zebari, KRG’s Coordinator for International Advocacy, denied that the five activists and journalists were sentenced for their journalistic work.
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 .