MESOP NEWS : SHIVAN ‘S FATE BY BARZANI KRG

Juli 2017 – HEWLÊR-Erbil, Iraq’s Kurdistan region,— A court in Iraq’s Kurdistan Region issued a jail term of five years imprisonment on Wednesday for a police officer over his criticism of issues in the region, including the lack of salaries and the spread of poverty.

A jail term of two years imprisonment was issued against the police officer, Shivan Azad, a former employee from Erbil’s Civil and Defense Department for failure to appear before the court during court hearings. The court from the Interior Security Forces issued a statement on Wednesday, saying a penalty of “severe confinement” of an additional three years imprisonment was issued against Azad for misuse of telecommunications. Azad is a young man from Erbil who was arrested in August 2015 after he posted a video of himself online, imploring Kurdish authorities to find a solution for the overdue salaries and the economic crisis.

“They are dishonorable; people are filled with anger, I don’t make people ruin Kurdistan, since Kurdistan is my nation, but I ask them not to accept this mercilessness,” Azad said in his video. “Until when do we have to tolerate this? It’s enough. Until when do people have to accept this, how long will this oppression last?” After his release on bail in August, Azad traveled to Europe and posted a video online saying that his departure was not in an effort to escape from court order. www.mesop.de