Kurdistan Regional Government under fire for jailing journalists

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called on the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to “immediately” release two journalists who were sentenced to six years in prison by an Erbil court on Tuesday.

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 – 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, their relatives told Rudaw English on Tuesday.

The ruling has caused outrage in the Kurdistan Region and abroad, with the CPJ calling on the government to respect freedom of the press.

“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. “Kurdish authorities in northern Iraq should immediately release both journalists, drop the charges against them, and cease harassing the media.”

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has also condemned the ruling. 

"These recent convictions only further compound the Kurdistan Region's standing as a place in which journalist can be prosecuted merely for reporting on and critiquing government policies they object to, and where citizens can be prosecuted for expressing concerns about the political elites,” Belkis Wille, senior crisis and conflict researcher at HRW told Rudaw English via email.

The trial was attended by activists and parliamentarians and family members of the detainees, including Sherwan Sherwani’s young children.

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, including a teacher whose family says committed no offense.

“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 said outside branch two of Erbil's criminal court on Tuesday.

Another lawyer for one of the defendants said the sentences would be appealed.

Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani previously claimed the detainees were “spies” and saboteurs plotting terror attacks against foreign missions, and abductions and assassinations.

“First of all, I have a lot of respect for journalists and the profession and I support the freedom of expression. In no way are we preventing criticism of the government,” Barzani said in a press conference on February 10. “Those who were detained … are neither activists nor journalists. Some of them were spies, they spied for other countries… Some were saboteurs.”

“I want to reassure you that those detained were neither activists nor journalists. They were only wearing the clothes of journalists, but they were busy doing other things underneath.”

Wille said Barzani’s comments are “inappropriate” and seemingly unsubstantiated. 

"Even more concerning in this case has been the inappropriate intervention by the Kurdistan Regional Government's prime minister alleging that those convicted were violent ‘spies,’ an unsubstantiated claim as far as we can tell. His comments expose political intervention in free speech even at the highest levels."

Relatives of some of the detainees have also rejected claims of espionage, and said they were not able to see their loved ones for several months. 

“My father was able to see my brother for five minutes on January 6th with the presence of an officer at Erbil Asayish [station],” Saeed’s brother Mehvan Saeed Omar told Rudaw English before the trial. “My brother is not a spy. He supported reconciliation and often spoke about creating consensus amongst Kurdish groups.”  

Journalist Hiwa Mahmoud Osman told Rudaw’s Dilbixwin Dara and Shaho Amin on Tuesday that the decision “will have a very bad affect for the Region’s reputation” as it “contradicts what the region’s leaders say” about freedoms of expression and exchange of information.

Rahman Gharib, head of the Metro Center, a Sulaimani-based press watchdog,  says the case was “not transparent or convincing.” 

“It’s not proven these people were spies or coordinated with foreign parties to disturb the region’s security. If the region’s security is a red line, freedom of expression should also be a red line of course. It’s not proven that these were saboteurs and spies," he said.

“We are behind on freedom of expression and press freedom. We are counted as Iraq, we are in a black list in terms of freedom of expression and press freedom … if the Kurdistan Region has decided to step towards democracy and develop, this direction is of course a very bad direction, and it’s falling behind.”

“What happened was a grave injustice,” parliamentarian Ali Hama Saleh said outside the court. “There was no plot, no planning and no execution and no evidence that someone has been killed and armed man has been detained.” 

The MP sobbed outside the court and pointed to the children of two of the defendants , saying “they have done nothing wrong,” saying that the case is “political” and the only evidence against the men was a messenger group “in which journalistic and human rights information was exchanged.”

United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) chief Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert warned about the threat to freedom of press in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region in her latest briefing to the UN Security Council on Tuesday. 

“On the pressing need for greater transparency, justice and accountability, let me clearly state that repression, violations of fundamental freedoms - including freedoms of expression and peaceful assembly - enforced disappearances and targeted killings, that all of it has no place in a democracy,”  Hennis-Plasschaert  said. 

“Unfortunately, transparency, justice and accountability continue to remain largely absent - particularly when it comes to the repression of public protests - throughout Iraq, including the Kurdistan Region.”

Safeen Dizayee, the head of the KRG’s Department of Foreign Relations admitted to Rudaw’s Sangar Abdulrahman on February 6th that there were issues with implementing press freedom in the Kurdistan Region, but claimed that journalists have also been detained for “violating” security in the Region.

“The freedom of press in the Kurdistan Region has been organized according to the law.  Maybe there are issues in executing the law,” Dizayee said. “There have been cases where individuals have had press cards, but [they] were not detained for holding press cards. They were detained because they committed other acts that violated the security and stability of the Kurdistan Region. But the court should adjudicate in these cases too.”

“We as the KRG have never hid the fact that there are shortcomings in the Kurdistan region in some areas … and we have called on other countries to identify the shortcomings and help us to overcome them,” Dizayee said.

The office of Dindar Zebari, the KRG's Coordinator for International Advocacy, issued a statement Wednesday evening, describing the trial as "very transparent and open." He noted that representatives of diplomatic missions and local organizations were presents at the court's proceedings. However, the diplomatic missions alleged to have attended the trial have subsequently denied their presence. 

On Tuesday, Kurdistan Parliament speaker Rewaz Faiaq said she has “unwavering faith in the principle of the separation of power,”  warning the court not to create “further distrust” in the power of the judiciary.

“What I have heard from the parliamentarians about today’s trial of detainees puts the Kurdistan Region’s Appellate Court before a heavy responsibility. I hope that they do not cause further distrust in judicial power,” Faiaq said, referring to the appeal court that will have to rule on the case in the coming months.

The Change Movement (Gorran), which is part of the current cabinet, issued a statement warning about the politicization of the courts, saying that the sentences did not reflect the offenses. “The acts that the defendants were accused of in no way corresponds with the sentences. We therefore see this step as a dangerous message against the rule of law and general freedoms.”

Updated on 21/02/21 at 10:30 am with new information from foreign consulates

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