Journalist released on bail for second time following lawsuits from former Iraqi politician

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Sulaimani-based journalist Surkew Mohammed was on Sunday released on bail for the second time in less than a week, following a lawsuit from a former Iraqi parliament deputy. 

Aram Sheikh Mohammed, a former high-ranking Change Movement (Gorran) official and previous second Deputy of the Iraqi Parliament filed a defamation lawsuit against the journalist following a report alleging that the politician has not returned state-owned properties and assets since he left his job in mid-2018.

Peregraf, an online newspaper co-founded and edited by Surkew published a report on the former deputy speaker of the Iraqi parliament being unwilling to hand over state-owned properties, which as Rudaw English has learnt, include a villa in Baghdad as well as six vehicles.

Aram filed a lawsuit based on Article 236 of the Iraqi Penal Code which relates to “offences of slander, abuse or the disclosure of classified information.” Sulaimani court issued an arrest warrant against Surkew on January 13. He was then released on bail two days later, according to Peregraf’s website.

"Last Wednesday, the Peregraf editor-in-chief was arrested on [the first] complaint from Aram Sheikh Mohammed and appeared before the court. The complaint was filed against [Surkew] after Peregraf published a report based on journalistic follow-ups and evidence proving that the former second deputy of the speaker of the Iraqi parliament has not yet returned the state-owned properties to the government of Iraq since his work finished."

Once Surkew was released on bail of 500,000 dinars, Aram filed a second lawsuit on Thursday, leading to another arrest. 

"The judge decided to change the law under which I was being held from the Iraqi penal code to the Kurdistan Region's 2007 press law,” Surkew told Rudaw English shortly after walking out of a prison he was held in outside of Sulaimani.

Rudaw understands the judge decided to revert to Kurdish law under pressure from local authorities.
Speaking with Rudaw English via phone, Aram declined to comment on why he lodged the lawsuit against Surkew.

"The matter has been referred to court and I am not making any comments on it," Aram told Rudaw English.  

According to the 2019 Violations statistics published by the Metro Center for Journalist Rights and Advocacy, 43 journalists were detained and subsequently tried outside the legal frameworks of the Kurdistan Press Law.

"Journalist cases are not dealt with according to the press law at all," according to a 2019 Metro Center statement published last week.

Freedom of the press in the Kurdistan Region has been questioned in the past by local and international media watchdogs, following the deaths of various journalists including Zardasht Osman and Kawa Garmyani.

Reporters Without Borders ranked Iraq 156 out of 180 countries in the 2019 press freedom report. 
Karwan Anwar head of the Sulaimani Branch of the Kurdistan Journalists Syndicate spoke against the use of federal law to suppress journalists in the Kurdistan Region.

“We are sad that the former deputy speaker of the Iraqi parliament is filing a lawsuit against a journalist under the Iraqi Penal Code while we have our own laws designed for journalists-related matters."
"As the syndicate, we will publish a statement and condemn the arrests being made against Surkew," he said.

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