ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The mother of a former opposition bloc head in the Kurdistan Region parliament told reporters on Sunday that medical reports have concluded that her son was “poisoned” and that he is receiving treatment abroad, in light of repeated remarks from the bloc denying the seriousness of his illness. The New Generation Movement (NGM) last week alerted Kazim Faruq, former head of the bloc, that he must stop accepting his salaries as an MP and “return the money which he has received for the last year and seven months” due to his inactivity. Faruq’s family responded to the comments of the NGM, telling Rudaw and other media outlets that the reason the MP has not been seen publicly is because he has been receiving treatment in hospitals abroad for several months, without specifying where he is being treated. “We took him [Faruq] abroad… and they [foreign doctors] told us your son has been poisoned,” Akhtar Ahmad, Faruq’s mother, told reporters in front of her house in Sulaimani on Sunday, noting that the family cannot reveal where the MP is because they can no longer tell “who is an enemy and who is a friend.” Ahmad said that the family decided to take Faruq abroad after lab results from a Sulaimani hospital in February could not identify what had caused the illness. “They knew [Sulaimani doctors] something bad had entered his body but they did not know what… They could see that his esophagus and stomach are all injured and that he has internal bleeding.” Faruq first announced that he was facing health problems in a Facebook post in January without getting into specifics. Another statement published on his account in June said that medical reports from hospitals abroad had shown that “a strange and unexpected reason” had led to Faruq’s illness, adding that no further information will be revealed regarding the subject until the MP’s health stabilizes. NGM leader Shaswar Abdulwahid has repeatedly claimed that the news regarding Faruq’s health are “lies” stressing that the MP has been living with his family in Britain for the last seven months. “Our dear friend Dr. Kazim [Faruq] on March 1, 2022 traveled from Baghdad Airport to Britain… He is residing there with wife and two children,” Abdulwahid said during a press conference on Saturday, claiming that the reports regarding Faruq’s health issues are “lies of the media… the media has published these things on their own without research or investigation.” Abdulwahid added that he and other members of his party have continuously checked up on Faruq’s health and that he has personally suggested to the MP to cover the expenses of his treatment abroad. “We announce to everyone that the news suggesting that his [Faruq] life is in danger and that his teeth are falling out and the words published by media of the KDP [Kurdistan Democratic Party] and the PUK [Patriotic Union of Kurdistan] are untrue, and be assured that the next months and years will prove our words in time,” NGM spokesperson Himdad Shahin said in a statement on Wednesday. Faruq announced that he was resigning the legislature on February 27, but the lawmakers are yet to vote on approving the resignation. The MP has been banned from attending parliamentary meetings since March 2021, after he threw a shoe at the legislature’s speaker and her deputies during a session.
