SULAIMANI (ESTA) — The EU Delegation to Iraq on Wednesday called on the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to ensure that criminal law is not used as a tool to restrict freedom of expression.
The EU delegation issued a statement on six-year prison sentence of five journalists and activists in Erbil.
On Sunday, the court of appeals in Erbil approved convictions against journalists Sherwan Sherwani, Guhdar Zebari and Ayaz Karam as well as activists Shvan Omer and Hariwan Issa, after their lawyers presented the second appeal to the court.
Their first appeal was denied in April. They were sentenced to six years each in prison in February on national security charges.
The EU delegation said basic fair trial standards had not been respected during the hearings of the five journalists and activists.
“The concerns notably included allegations of torture, the lack of access to the case file by the defence as well as political pressure around the cases,” it added.
The delegation also encouraged the Kurdish authorities to consider the “key recommendations contained in the UNAMI/OHCHR report, especially those related to harassment, intimidation and reprisals against journalists, human rights defenders and activists and to ensure that criminal law is not used as a tool to limit freedom of expression”.
“The European Union wishes to recall that freedom of expression, media freedom, as well as an independent judiciary, are essential components of democracy,” it stated.
People including lawyers and judges criticized the ruling, saying it was a “political decision” to punish the journalists and activists, who called for protests in Duhok province.
UNAMI said on Monday that the court’s decision confirmed the “urgent need for judicial reform” in the Kurdistan Region.
“Yesterday’s decision by the Kurdistan Region’s Cassation Court regrettably confirms the urgent need for judicial and institutional reform in the KRI to prevent such miscarriages of justice in future,” it said in a tweet.
Head of Canada’s office in Erbil Ashley Durec also said she was “disappointed” with the court’s decision, adding that “the unhindered work of journalists is key to an open and informed society”.
EU Ambassador to Iraq Martin Huth said on Sunday he was “appalled” by the court’s ruling against the journalists and activists already convicted in May “despite serious procedural flaws and allegations of mistreatment identified by the U.N.
“Freedom of expression and media freedom, as well as an independent professional judiciary are essential components of a democracy,” he tweeted.
The Kurdish security forces arrested the five in Duhok province in October 2020 over allegedly undermining national security in the region.
In denying its first appeal, the court alleged that that the defendants “contacted the U.S. and German consulates and received money,” without giving further details.
It also alleged that “the defendants confessed that they had met with the German consul in one of the hotels in Erbil and they sent him [the consul] to Dora area twice, directed by the head of the group defendant Shirwan Amina Na’oo.”
U.S. and European consulates in Erbil as well as EU delegation to Iraq expressed shock over the ruling which allegedly linking the diplomatic missions to the case.
In its second ruling, the court of appeals removed the statements related to the two consulates.
It states that the “names of the American and German consulates were not mentioned in the defendants’ testimonies, except for the statement of the accused Shirwan Amin Na’oo, who camouflaged them as a journalist”.
“The consulates had nothing to do with their work, and the presence of these consulates in the Kurdistan Region is to support the Region and the judicial authority,” the court’s ruling says.
