Kurdish man dies in Kirkuk hours after being arrested

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - National Security Forces in Kirkuk detained a Kurdish civil servant in the early hours of Thursday and informed his family later in the day to collect his dead body. The reasons behind his detention and death are not clear and an investigation has been launched into the incident. 

Abdulqadir Sabah, 45, was an employee for a state-owned oil distribution company in the city. His brother, Majd, told Rudaw on Thursday that a group of armed men affiliated to Iraq’s National Security Forces raided the house of the Kurdish civil servant in the early hours of Thursday and “this noon we received his dead body from Kirkuk forensics.”

His family said that he died on the way to the detention centre after experiencing health issues. 

Iraqi Justice Minister Khalid Shwani’s office told Rudaw late Thursday that the head of Iraq’s National Security Forces has informed the minister that “today a high-level committee will launch an investigation today on the incident and visit Kirkuk to punish the perpetrators.” 

Shakhawan Abdullah, second deputy speaker of the Iraqi parliament, told Rudaw that the members of the armed group that detained Abdulqadir have been arrested.