Left to right: Shvan Saeed, Ayaz Karam, Sherwan Sherwani, Guhdar Zebari, and Hariwan Issa (NRT Digital Media)
PM:02:29:31/08/2021
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SULAIMANI — In a brief phone call with his family, imprisoned
activist Hariwan Issa said that health conditions of journalists and activists who
were arrested last year in Duhok is deteriorating in prison, the family said in
a statement on Tuesday (August 31).
It said that Issa called on human rights organizations and
Kurdistan Parliament’s committees to visit the prison and help the defendants.
Issa also urged the defense team to work on the defendants’ transfer
to Erbil Reform Prison, it added.
Among those who are in detention are journalists Sherwan
Sherwani, Guhdar Zebari, and Ayaz Karam and activists Shvan Saeed Omar and Issa,
who were arrested in Duhok governorate as part of a roundup of protest
organizers and journalists by the local security forces, which are affiliated
with the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP).
On June 27, the court upheld six year prisons sentences
handed down against the defendants during a nine-hour trial in February in
which they were accused of seeking to undermine the security and stability of
the state. An initial appeal was denied in May.
All five defendants strongly deny the charges against them,
alleging that statements later used against them by the court were obtained
through coercion and threats against their families or simply fabricated by
secret and unnamed witnesses cited by the Kurdistan Region's Security Council.
On August 7, the defense team said that the detainees were
subjected to torture in the Asayish prison in Erbil where they are being held
and are put under intense pressure from the authorities.
The lawyers argued that conditions at Erbil General Asayishdo not meet standards consistent with the detainees’ rights.
Foreign and local watchdogs have expressed alarm about the
deterioration of freedom of the press and expression in the Kurdistan Region
since Prime Minister Masrour Barzani, who is a senior KDP official, took office
in July 2019.
(NRT Digital Media)