SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani on Monday issued a general amnesty for 1659 prisoners across the Region.
The senior adviser of President Barzani, Dlshad Shahab has confirmed the issuance of the decision by Barzani.
Speaking about the prisoners who are valid for the decision Shaba said that it’s only applicable to those whose crime is not a threat to society.
“Most of the valid ones are government employees,” Shahab added.
Some people have welcomed the decision, however, it was not beyond the public’s critics, according to social media, a vast majority called the decision an “offense to the law and institutions”.
In the meantime, a Member of the Kurdistan Region Parliament, Ali Hama Salih, was slammed against the decision.
According to Salih’s words, the decision has been issued for those who have already settled their issues outside of the courts in a “nomadic” way.
He further said that the decision is not valid for Badinan political prisoners, a group of Kurdish journalists and activists detained in Erbil’s prison.
Back then, in 2021, journalists Shirwan Sherwani, Guhdar Zebari and Ayaz Karam as well as activists Shvan Omer and Hariwan Issa were given six years imprisonment sentence by Erbil criminal court.
The Kurdish security forces arrested the five in Duhok province in October 2020 over allegedly undermining national security in the Region.
“Badinan political prisoners cannot go through the decision as far as I investigated,” read a post on Salih’s Facebook account.
