|
Officials:
"Out of a zero, we made a hero", Dr. Kamal Kadir case
|
|
Kurd Net
does not take credit for and is not responsible for the
content of news information on this page |
|
Officials: "Out of a zero, we made a
hero", Dr. Kamal Kadir case
7.4.2006
By Nora Boustany
|
|
|
|
In
Releasing Writer, Kurds Ponder Press Freedom
A representative for Iraq's regional Kurdish
government said Thursday in Washington that the
prosecution of an Iraqi-born Kurd with Austrian
citizenship had been mishandled and that his
sentence was disproportionate to the wrong he
committed.
"Out of a zero, we made a hero," the official,
Nijyar Shemdin , said about the case of Kamal Kadir
Karim , a lawyer and author jailed last year and
released Monday. "I know everybody felt the way."
Shemdin added that Kurdish authorities in Iraq were
constantly trying to improve laws pertaining to
freedom of expression.
Karim, 48, was arrested in October for writing
articles posted on the Internet that accused the
Kurdish leadership of corruption, abuse of power and
mistreatment of women. He was convicted of
defamation and initially sentenced to 30 years in
prison. |
Dr Kamal Said Qadir, Austrian citizen, an
international legal expert, writer and human rights
activist |
|
The sentence was denounced as excessive by Amnesty
International, the Committee to Protect Journalists
and other humanitarian organizations. It also drew
criticism from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
and British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw .
Kurdish groups also mounted a campaign in support of
Karim, who was educated in top schools in Vienna and
had returned to the city of Salahuddin last summer
to teach at a university.
Nechirvan Barzani , the Kurdish regional prime
minister, commuted Karim's sentence Monday. Barzani,
who is a nephew of Massoud Barzani , the regional
president and leader of the Kurdish Democratic
Party, said in a statement that Karim's "assertions"
were "negative and irresponsible," but that "I have
commuted his sentence and I am asking the Kurdistan
National Assembly to review laws on press freedom
and to consider changes that will make our press and
writers more free -- not less."
Karim was released into the custody of an Iraqi
trade representative working with the Austrian
Embassy in Baghdad and flown Thursday from Irbil, in
northern Iraq, to Cologne, Germany. From there, he
took a train to Vienna, according to his
brother-in-law, Taha Mohammed Zaman , reached by
telephone in the German town of Heilbronn, near
Stuttgart.
Zaman said he spoke to Karim twice after he landed
in Cologne and just before he boarded the train for
Austria. "He told me he was in good health, just
fine, and that he is expected to arrive in Austria
early Friday," Zaman said.
Kurdish authorities had asked him to leave the
region and provided him with protection because they
felt they could not guarantee his safety, Zaman said
by telephone.
The Austrian ambassador to Iraq, Gudrun Harrer , was
in contact with Kurdish authorities throughout the
trial and during subsequent negotiations but could
not travel to Irbil because of dire security
conditions along the roads, said Christoph Meran ,
press attache at the Austrian chancery in
Washington.
Meran said that Austrian authorities insisted that
Karim first return to Austria but that he had asked
to go back to Kurdish areas. "He told Ambassador
Harrer by telephone that after he returns to
Austria, he would like to come back to Iraq's
Kurdish region at some point in the future," Meran
said.
Source: washingtonpost.com
Top |
Kurd Net
does not take credit for and is not responsible for the content of news
information on this page
|
|
|
® 