Amnesty International had called for Barwari's release after he remained the sole detainee out of some 100 arrested on May 16, the day protesters in the city of Duhok demanded the government pay salaries delayed for months.
A Duhok court had ordered Barwari's release on bail on May 18, after he was officially charged with protesting without permission under the Kurdistan Region's Protest Law No. 17 of 2010. However, Barwari remained in jail, and was later separately charged with "misuse of electronic devices," his lawyer Ramadhan Artesey told Amnesty International.
Officials told Rudaw the protesters were arrested because they ignored lockdown restrictions implemented to contain the spread of COVID-19.
However, Barwari claims security forces entered him the night before the protest was set to take place. "My house had been surrounded and monitored by the security forces for two days. Security forces, including police, came to my house and arrested me at 12:45 am," Barwari told Rudaw in an interview Sunday, following his release. "We had submitted an application to authorize the protest to the governor's office but they failed to answer us in 48 hours, meaning we can go ahead with the protest," Barwari claims.
The demonstration went forward in Duhok's Azadi Park at 3:00 pm on May 16, and was attended by dozens of civil servants demanding the government pay salaries frozen amid an economic crisis that coincided with a total lockdown implemented to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus.
Salaries of public sector workers, including teachers and medical staff, hadn't been paid as the government says coffers are empty after an agreement to exchange oil for budget between Erbil and Baghdad reached in December was never implemented. In return for a roughly 13 percent share of Iraq's federal budget, the KRG committed to hand over 250,000 barrels of oil per day to Iraq's oil agency. But both sides failed to follow through, blaming the other for breaking the agreement. In mid-April, then-Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi ordered the finance ministry to halt budget transfers to the KRG for 2020.
With Mustafa al-Kadhimi installed as Iraq's new prime minister, Erbil and Baghdad are busy thrashing out a new oil-for-budget agreement. KRG delegations have already made several visits to Baghdad in recent weeks to put an end to the budget cuts. But with no agreement reached, the KRG announced in May it planned to resume paying the salaries of civil servants from "limited financial resources" available.
Additional reporting by Karwan Faidhi Dri
