Imprisoned journalist Sherwan Sherwani. (file)
PM:10:35:07/10/2021
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SULAIMANI — Imprisoned journalist Sherwan Sherwani, who was
controversially sentenced to six years in prison earlier this year, released a
defiant statement to the public on Thursday (October 7), declaring that he and
dozens of others who were rounded up in a crackdown in Duhok governorate last
year will not be deterred from their pursuit of justice.
"No matter how many times we are tortured and how much
we are insulted, our beliefs will never change,” Sherwani said in a voice
message from prison that was posted online.
In the statement, he reiterated his accusation that the
security forces in Duhok, which are affiliated with the Kurdistan Democratic
Party (KDP), threatened his family in order to elicit a false confession.
Sherwani also accused the authorities in the Kurdistan
Region of hypocrisy by speaking about "universal values,” while keeping
journalists and activists in prison for political reasons.
"I find it strange that those responsible for all of
this suffering are talking about conferences and strategies, while they are
treating us like this in prison," he said.
Following protests in Duhok last year against the Kurdistan
Regional Government’s (KRG) economic policies, the KDP-affiliated security
forces in arrested dozens of journalists, activists, and ordinary citizens.
In February, Sherwani was convicted by a court in Erbil on
charges of attempting to undermine the security of the state and sentenced to
six years in prison, along with fellow journalists Guhdar Zebari and Ayaz Karam
and activists Shvan Saeed and Hariwan Issa.
The trial was heavily criticized by observers, who argued
that the process was riddled with violations of the defendants’ civil rights
and that prosecutors relied on extremely flimsy evidence.
During the investigative stage, the defendants were
interrogated without access to lawyers and have alleged that the Asayish abused
them and threatened their families in order to coerce information that the
defendants later repudiated at trial.
Critics have also decried the personal intervention into the
case by KRG Prime Minister Masrour Barzani, who described the defendants as
spies and saboteurs at a press conference days ahead of the trial without
providing evidence, leading to concerns about political influence over the
courts.
Barzani is a senior KDP leader.
The defendants have since had two appeals rejected by the
judiciary.
Several other groups of activists who were rounded up at
around the same time have had similar trials postponed several times and have
now been in pre-trial detention for more than a year.
Journalist Qaraman Shukri was sentenced to seven years in
prison on the same charges in a secret trial earlier this summer, while
journalist Omed Baroshki has been sentenced to two years in prison on lesser
charges.
Baroshki and teacher and activist Badal Barwari will go to
trial on the national security charges on October 12 in Erbil.
"I don’t know what will happen to us in the future, but I
know that we will be successful,” Sherwani said.
(NRT Digital Media)