ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Three of the Badinan journalists and activists who were arrested for their involvement in the 2020 Duhok protests, were released on Thursday after completing their prison sentences, according to one of the case’s lawyers. Sherwan Sherwani, Shvan Saeed, Ayaz Karam, Hariwan Issa, and Guhdar Zebari, were among dozens of people arrested during anti-government protests over unpaid wages in Duhok in 2020. In February 2021, the five were put on trial for “endangering the national security of the Kurdistan Region.” They were found guilty and sentenced to six years in jail, prompting outcry from media watchdogs and human rights groups. Kamaran Sarmami, one of the detainees’ lawyers, told Rudaw’s Nazanin Goran that Saeed, Karam, and Issa were released on Thursday afternoon. A decree from Kurdistan Region’s President Nechirvan Barzani in February 2022 reduced the sentences of the prisoners by 60 percent, apart from Sherwani, whose sentence was reduced by 50 percent. Zebari’s prison sentence was also set to finish on Thursday, however, an Erbil court on Wednesday sentenced the detainee to an additional seven months in prison. “Guhdar [Zebari] had a 1993 Daewoo car which had its logo changed to a Toyota logo prior to his purchase, which is not his fault, but they have used that excuse to sentence him for seven more months,” said Bashdar Hassan, a lawyer to the case, on Wednesday. Amnesty International at the time slammed the court’s decision, releasing a call to action in the form of a letter to the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Coordinator Office for International Advocacy, Dindar Zebari, calling on the KRG to “immediately” release the five detainees.
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