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Commitee to Protect Journalists
New York, March 22, 2006 -- The Committee to
Protect Journalists today condemned the detention
and prosecution of a Kurdish journalist, who was
seized by Kurdish security forces in Kurdistan
(northern Iraq).
On March 17, security forces affiliated with the
Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) arrested Hawez
Hawezi, a 31-year-old high school teacher who also
writes for the independent Kurdish weekly Hawlati,
at his home in Koya, near the city of Arbil, the
newspaper’s managing editor Peshwaz Faizulla told
CPJ.
Faizulla said the agents assaulted Hawezi while
driving him to a detention facility in the city of
Sulaymaniyah. The journalist was released on bail
March 19 after being questioned by an investigating
judge.
The judge told the journalist he faced unspecified
defamation charges for a recent article criticizing
local Kurdish authorities, the editor said. In a
column in the March 15 edition of Hawlati, Hawezi
criticized the PUK and the Kurdistan Democratic
Party (KDP), the two main political parties in
Iraq’s northern Kurdistan region.
The article accused both parties of governing
northern Iraq badly, referring to them as Pharaohs.
It called for new leadership in Iraqi Kurdistan.
"We call on the authorities to dismiss this case at
once," said CPJ Executive Director Ann Cooper.
"Rather than pursue a journalist for doing his job
the Kurdish authorities would do well to investigate
those who assaulted our colleague Hawez Hawezi. Such
arbitrary and heavy-handed treatment of the press by
Kurdish authorities shows that their reputation for
tolerance of free media is undeserved.”
PUK spokesman Azad Jundyany told CPJ that Hawezi had
been detained by Kurdish security agents and faced
trial for defamation. He said the PUK supported the
due process of the courts in the case. "We oppose
the imprisonment of journalists for what they write,
or for expressing their opinions," he said in a
telephone interview from Iraq. "But there is writing
and there is insult. There is a difference between
the two," he said. When asked what penalties Hawezi
might face in court he said, “probably face a small
fine."
At least one Kurdish writer is in jail for his work
in Kurdistan (northern Iraq). Kamal Karim is
currently serving a 30-year sentence for defamation
after he was convicted in December by a state
security court of defaming public institutions.
Karim, an Austrian citizen, has been in detention
since he was arrested on October 26, 2005 in Erbil
by the Parastin, the security intelligence service
of the ruling KDP. He had published articles on
Kurdistanpost, an independent Kurdish news Web site,
criticizing the KDP and its leader Massoud Barzani,
whom he accused of corruption and abuse of power.
Barzani is also president of the Kurdistan Region.
Karim is appealing the verdict.
www.cpj.org
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