Sign held at a protest in Sulaimani on October 4, 2021 (NRT Digital Media/Winthrop Rodgers)
PM:12:39:04/10/2021
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SULAIMANI — Protesters gathered across
the Kurdistan Region on Monday (October 4), calling for justice for dozens of
imprisoned journalists, activists, and ordinary citizens who were arrested in
Duhok governorate last year as part of a crackdown on criticism of public
sector pay cuts and the government's handling of deteriorating economic conditions.
At the courthouse in Sulaimani, protesters gathered with
signs and banners calling on the authorities in the Kurdistan Region to "free
them all.”
One protester in the southeastern city told NRT that "it is
our duty to support our brothers and friends who are imprisoned because it is
standing up for what’s right.”
"It’s the people’s responsibility to take a stand against
the injustice we have in the Kurdistan Region,” he added.
Protesters also gathered outside the courthouses in Erbil and Duhok.
At least seventeen activists and journalists have been tried
and sentenced on serious national security charges and other alleged crimes,
though observers of the proceedings say that the prosecutions are politically
motivated and that basic evidentiary standards and due process have not been met.
Many other defendants have been held in pre-trial detention for more than a year without access to their lawyers or the opportunities to
clear their names.
Four activists had a hearing scheduled in Erbil on Monday
morning, but it was postponed, because two of the judges had been taken off the
case.
A protester in Erbil, who identified themselves as an
activist, said that he had come to support the families of the imprisoned
activists and journalists.
"We demand that their cases are not delayed anymore. We ask for
an end to this injustice,” he said.
Mzhda Mahmood, a member of the Kurdistan Parliament from the
New Generation Movement who was attending the protest in Erbil, said that it is
immoral that the activists have been kept in pre-trial detention for more than
a year, noting that one of the imprisoned activist’s mother died while he was
in prison.
Speaking in Sulaimani, a family member of an imprisoned
activist said that he wanted to tell the people of Erbil and Duhok that the
area is not owned by the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and that people
should seek some measure of justice by voting against the party.
In Duhok, where many of the imprisoned activists and
journalists are from, a protester told NRT that he thought Kurdistan Region President
Nechirvan Barzani should free the imprisoned activists and journalists as soon
as possible.
It is not legally clear whether Barzani, himself a senior
member of the KDP, has that power or the will to do so.
A second protester in Duhok said that there are no legal
excuses for delaying the trials of the activists, ascribing political
motivations for why they were being kept in prison.
(NRT Digital Media)