SULAIMANI (ESTA) — A court in the Kurdistan Region’s capital on Wednesday delayed for the third time a trial for five more activists who were detained in Duhok in 2020, according to Esta’s reporter.
Esta Media Network reporter said Erbil criminal court was scheduled to hold hearing on cases of activists Firsat Ahmed, Sleman Kamal, Amir Khalid, Sleman Musa and Jamal Khalil but it was delayed to Oct. 21.
Lawyer Bashdar Hassan told reporters that a change in posts of the judges was a reason for the delay.
“The activists have been detained for over 14 months, and it is the third time that their trial is delayed,” Hassan said.
Meanwhile, the court’s guards prevented Esta Media Network’s journalist team from covering the trial.
On Monday, the court also postponed trial for four other activists due to the same reason.
Trials of a dozen activists have been postponed in the past months due to various reasons, including changes in the head and judges of the court.
The Kurdish security forces detained dozens of journalists and activists in Duhok in 2020 over espionage and allegedly undermining national security in the Kurdistan Region.
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.
In September, as many as 82 activists and journalists went on hunger strike in protest of their detention, according to the committee of rights and freedoms in Kurdistan and Europe.
Seventy-seven out of 82 detainees have been held in detention centers of the general directorate of Asayish in Erbil without been tried for over a year, it added.
