ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Kurdistan Bar Association on Sunday condemned a lawyer accused of pulling a gun on a fellow attorney and a court officer during a dispute at an Erbil courthouse, calling for his swift arrest. Police said the suspect remained at large.
In a statement, the association identified the lawyer by his initials, Y.Z.M., and accused him of exploiting the exemption from security searches that lawyers enjoy when entering courts to bring a pistol into the building.
The association said the lawyer had violated professional ethics and abused the trust placed in attorneys, whom courts consider “part of the justice system.”
“He then behaved improperly toward a fellow lawyer and a court officer, pointing a gun at both of them,” the association said, stressing that the incident was an individual act that did not represent the legal profession.
The incident has raised questions about courthouse security and the professional privileges afforded to lawyers in the Kurdistan Region, with the association urging authorities to take action against the suspect while warning against imposing collective restrictions on other attorneys.
Aram Gardi, spokesperson for the association's Erbil branch, told Rudaw’s Solin Hamadamin on Sunday that the incident began with a verbal dispute between the suspect and another lawyer.
“A court officer intervened to restore calm and maintain security, but the lawyer also pointed his gun at the officer before fleeing the scene,” Gardi said.
He described the incident as a case of a suspect being caught in the act, arguing that authorities could pursue the lawyer without first obtaining the association's permission.
Under the Kurdistan Region's Lawyers Law, authorities generally require the association's approval before proceeding with complaints and investigations against lawyers, except in cases involving offenses committed in flagrante delicto (in the very act of committing a crime).
Gardi said the association would cooperate fully with security forces and had no objection to the suspect's arrest.
“We will take measures against this lawyer at the next meeting of the Kurdistan Bar Association because what he did was completely illegal and a clear violation of professional ethics,” he said.
However, Gardi urged courts, judicial authorities and government institutions not to use the incident as grounds to subject all lawyers to security searches or other restrictions.
“This was an individual act. Every society and profession has people who behave this way, and one person's wrongdoing should not be used to judge all lawyers,” he said.
Erbil Police spokesperson Kifah Hassan told Rudaw’s Solin Hamadamin that an arrest warrant had been issued for the suspect, who remained at large.
Police would arrest him “as soon as possible,” Hassan said.
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