SULAIMANI (ESTA) — A Kurdish expatriate activist has gone missing for two days after coming back to Erbil on Monday, according to information Esta Media Network has obtained.
Kurdish activist Khalid Abdullah Penjweni who lives in the United Kingdom has gone missing after coming back to the Kurdistan Region, his native land, via Erbil International Airport on Monday night.
Esta Media Network has learned that the missing activist has participated in Kurdish diaspora protests abroad against the ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP).
“Penjweni’s fate is remained unknown since Monday night after coming back via Erbil International Airport at 12:00 A.M.,” said journalist and activist Ranj Pzhdari in a post on Facebook.
According to what the Kurdish activists say on social media, no activists’ lives are safe when they come back to Erbil if they participated in protests or assemblies abroad.
The annual report of Amnesty International which was released last month has suggested that the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) “security forces continued to repress the right to freedom of expression and assembly.”
KRG’s security forces “continued to arbitrarily arrest prosecuted and imprisoned journalists, activists, and perceived critics,” it said.
February this year U.S. Consul General in Erbil Irvin Hicks JR. announced that he is “concerned” about backsliding human rights, freedom of expression, and freedom of the press in the Kurdistan Region during recent years which has proliferated significantly.
