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Why is our brother 'Dr Kamal' still in
jail?
7.3.2006
By Gelawej Sayid Qadir and Awaz Sayid Qadir 4.March,
Translated by Dr Kamal Mirawdeli |
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It is more than four months now that our brother Dr
Kamal Sayid Qadir has been kidnapped by Kurdistan
Democratic Party (KDP)’s forces. No legal case had
been made against him. He had no access to any legal
advice or support. Kidnapping is in itself a crime
in the international law and in the laws of
democratic countries. Then in a theatrical show a
servile judge appointed by authorities sentenced Dr
Sayid Qadir to 30 years imprisonment.
After several verbal promises by the President of
Kurdistan region and the Prime Minister of Arbil
administration that Dr Kamal Qadir would be
released, we believe that our brother should have
been made free by now and the case against him
should have been closed. But unfortunately what we
see is that a cynical game is being played and every
time an excuse is created to delay his “trial”. |
Dr Kamal Said Qadir, Austrian citizen, an
international legal expert, writer and human rights
activist |
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In the last four months Kamal had four times
formally resorted to hunger strike. This time he
started his hunger strike on 28 February 2006. We
believe that there is a political decision made at
the highest level to keep Dr Qadir in prison for as
long as possible. Before he went back to Kurdistan
Dr Qadir was fit and healthy. But he is suffering
from various diseases now and he has been infected
by a deadly virus. This increases our suspicion that
Kamal has been poisoned. And one of the factors for
delaying his trial and release is to keep him as
long as necessary to recover from symptoms of his
poisoning.
We would like to point out to all the people of
Kurdistan that if Dr Qadir had succumbed to
Ba’athist style pressure and had accepted to appear
on TV to repent and withdraw his criticisms, he
would have been freed long time ago. Before his
return to Kurdistan and in several occasions, Dr
Qadir did apologise to all people against whom he
might have used strong and inappropriate words. But
he has not renegaded from any of his political
criticisms of the corrupt power and he will never
do. And now it seems that the power and authorities,
who are used to Ba’athist style of kidnapping and
punishment, cannot give up their sense of hatred and
desire for revenge. Thus they want to terrorise Dr
Qadir morally if they fail to achieve this
physically.
We, as sisters of Dr Qadir, appeal once more to all
writers, intellectuals, journalists and all
freedom-loving and liberal political and social
figures to understand that Kurdistan Democratic
Party has taken the case of Dr Qadir very seriously
and they will not give up on him easily. We appeal
to you again to raise your voices and join the free
intellectuals of exile in their campaign for freedom
of Dr Qadir. Don’t let the political power
marginalise the hundred thousand voices that call
for freedom for Dr Qadir. Don’t let them practise
the ideology of totalitarian regimes and impose
their will.
Go to his trial on 9 March 2006 and do not allow the
authorities to postpone his ‘trial’ any more and
demand unconditional freedom for him. Use any civil
method you can to condemn his trial and save his
life. Insist on safeguarding freedom of expression.
Dr Qadir has not committed any crime. All his sin is
that he put words on paper. Power has thousands of
servile pens and invests unaccountable sums of money
and owns tens of media channels: why don’t they use
all this financial and media power to refute Dr
Qadir’s criticisms and claims? Why should they
resort to kidnapping and intimidation?
The way power treats Dr Qadir reveals a great fear
they harbour. The city of Arbil is full of tens of
former Baathist officials, former heads of jash
(Kurdish mercenaries who worked for Saddam) and the
intelligence men and those who participated in the
murder and genocide of Kurdish people. They are all
free. Many of them have high-ranking political
posts. But Dr Qadir is in jail and the authorities
are unwilling to free him.
The President of Kurdistan region is expected not to
act anymore as the president of his party alone. He
is supposed to be the president of all Kurdistan
region and put aside all his ideological, party and
family thinking and put the interests of Kurdistan
before any other interests. Dr Qadir is a Kurdish
citizen and intellectual. The President of Kurdistan
region should not allow any more humiliation of Dr
Qadir.
We consider the President of Kurdistan region, his
party and the Kurdistan regional government of Arbil
and the intelligence service of KDP directly
responsible for health, life and freedom of Dr
Qadir.
Galawej Sayid Qadir and Awaz Sayid Qadir. First
published in
www.dengekan.com on1 March 2006.
www.kurdistanreferendum.org
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