Prisoners in Erbil facing dire conditions after launching hunger strike

Iraqi Kurdistan region authorities halted the conditional release of several Kurdish journalists and activists who had served two-thirds of their prison terms, lawyers and human rights activists said on Wednesday.   

The health conditions are deteriorating for fifty-two Kurdish journalists and activists at a prison in the Iraqi Kurdistan region (IKR) after they launched hunger strikes in protest against the halt of their conditional by a ruling party in Erbil, inmates, lawyers and rights groups exclusively told The New Arab.  

The prisoners, most of whom have been sentenced for "endangering national security" on what many view are politically-motivated charges, are currently being kept behind bars at the Adult Reform Prison in Erbil administered by the Kurdistan Regional Government's (KRG) ministry of labour and social affairs.

The prison authorities have also reportedly denied lawyers the right to meet with their clients.  

"We are prisoners of conscience in the Kurdistan region as we have defended the freedom of speech, civil liberties, and standing against the Turkish occupation and bombardments," the prisoners said in a letter, a copy of which has been sent to TNA.

"We have started a hunger strike since the Kurdistan region's general prosecution is not ready to admit to our legal right of conditional release according to Article 331 of Iraq's Criminal Procedure Code. There is partisan interference in the judiciary affairs in order to deprive us of our right of being released after we have completed almost two-thirds of our terms," the letter added.  

Hundreds of other protesters from the Badinan area of Duhok province were arrested by the Kurdistan Region's Security Council (KRSC) after a series of anti-government protests emerged in Dohuk in 2020. 

Ayhan Saeed, the representative of Duhok province prisoners, said that the prisoners' health conditions are getting worse as they refuse to receive medical treatment. 

"Those journalists and activists have served two-thirds of their terms; thus, they should have been freed a month ago. The general attorney initially agreed to free them yet as per a phone call by the KRG top officials, the Kurdistan judiciary halted releasing the inmates," Saeed told TNA via an encrypted messaging application.  

Saeed said that eleven prisoners from Badinan, including journalists Sherwan Amin Sherwani and Guhdar Zebari, and activists Shvan Saeed, Ayaz Karam, Hariwan Issa - who all have been sentenced to six years imprisonment in February 2021 - are among those who joined the hunger strike.

Five other inmates from Shiladze town of Duhok also were on strike. They have been found guilty on charges of "endangering national security'' after they have been accused of participating in a demonstration against a Turkish military base in Shiladz in January 2019. 

In June 2021, a court in Erbil upheld the six-year sentences against the journalists and activists. As per a decree by the Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani, the sentence of Sherwani was reduced by 50 per cent, while the sentences on the other four were reduced by 60 per cent. 

Bashdar Hassan, a lawyer defending the Badinan prisoners, told TNA during a brief phone call that the KRG authorities have not allow him to visit the prisoners because their health conditions are "critical".   

TNA contacted Aryan Ahmed, spokesperson for KRG's ministry of labour and social affairs, and Dindar Zebari, KRG's coordinator for international advocacy, but neither were available to comment at the time of publication.   

"The prisoners are in bad health conditions, especially Amjad Yousif Rekani, who was infected with Hepatitis C in prison and the Kurdish authorities refused to let a special doctor see him. All the prisoners went on a hunger strike on 18 July and they have vowed not to end their strikes until death or freedom. Health conditions of the prisoners are getting worse on a daily basis," Kamaran Othman, a member of the Community Peacemaker Teams - Iraqi Kurdistan (CPT), an NGO monitoring human rights abuses in the Kurdistan region and Iraq, said to TNA.

"This month, we met with the head of the Kurdistan region's general prosecution and discussed the issue with him for two hours. He agreed to free the inmates. But unfortunately, he regretted his promise later on. We think there is an interference into the Kurdistan region's judiciary system, from an authority that deems itself above the judiciary, consequently, the prisoners were not released," Othman added.  

Ali Hama Salih, a Kurdish lawmaker, wrote a Facebook post in 2021 that during Sherwani's trial, that Sherwani said that during interrogation by the Kurdish security forces they had threatened to rape his wife if he did not confess. Defence lawyers also confirmed the threat to The Middle East Eye.  

 Masrour Barzani, the KRG prime minister, a week prior to the ruling,  claimed in a press conference that those in prison were "neither activists nor journalists" and that "some of them were spies."