SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Five journalists and activists sentenced to six years in jail called on the U.N. and international community to pressure the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to halt the “undemocratic process” of convicting people.
The convicts released their messages to the public via phone calls they held with their families on Wednesday.
The group of Badinan prisoners’ family released a joint statement, saying the five journalists and activists had said the decision to sentence them was “illegal and injustice”.
“We have been oppressed since the first day of our kidnapping, and our conviction is to frighten the people of the Kurdistan Region and Badinan in the interest of KDP and to prevent civil struggle,” the five was quoted as saying.
“Try to inform the international community about this disaster and don’t close the case,” they requested the public.
“We call on the U.N., human rights organizations, EU states and the United States to put pressure and to prevent this undemocratic process.”
In February, Erbil criminal court sentenced journalists Sherwan Sherwani, Guhdar Zebari and Ayaz Karam as well as activists Shvan Omer and Hariwan Issa to six years in prison on national security charges.
Their lawyers presented appeals twice to the court of appellate, but they were rejected.
“The accusations of the KDP courts which consider us as armed militants, terrorists and spies are not true … We have not harmed trees of this nation, and we are proud that we are in prison over people’s rights,” the five convicts said.
They also called on people and the opposition parties to protest and on the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and Change Movement to prevent “this injustice” by withdrawing from the government.
“Because today is us, and tomorrow is your turn,” the added. “If you are all against this unfair decision, the KDP won’t be able to continue on this oppression, which has paralyzed this country.”
“Not only the parties, the people who have different views should prevent this process, which has defamed them and our Region.”
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 June 26 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.
On June 30, the EU delegation to Iraq said the 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.
