|
Two editors of Kurdish Hawlati newspaper
sentenced to six months in prison
2.5.2006
|
|
|
|
Sulaimaniyah, Kurdistan-Iraq, May 2, -– The
current and former editors of Kurdish Hawlati
newspaper on Tuesday each received suspended
six-month prison sentence for defamation of Omar
Fattah, Prime Minister of Kurdistan government-Sulaymaniyah
department.
Chief Judge of Sulaymaniyah criminal court also
fined Twana Othman, editor of Hawlati, and Asos
Hardi, former editor of Hawlati and editor of weekly
Awene, 75,000 Iraqi dinars ($50) each and made them
sign a written guarantee not to repeat the
defamation in future.
Fattah took Hawlati to court in November 2005 for an
article that claimed he fired employees working for
Kurdtel Communications Company after they
disconnected his telephone line as he failed to pay
due bill for the company. |
Asos Herdi, former editor-in-chief of Hawlati
Newspaper and current editor of Awene Kurdish
Newspaper
Photo: KURDNET |
"We could have won the case if the court studied the
case as whole… but it narrowed down the case to say
that the head of government was not directly
responsible for firing the employees," Othman said
"As long as these are the law inherited from the
Baath regime, then all talk about freedom of
expression is just a joke," Hardi said.
Iraqi Kurd journalists
convicted over report
BAGHDAD, May 2 (Reuters) - An Iraqi Kurdish
court handed two journalists six-month suspended
sentences for defamation on Tuesday after their
newspaper said a regional governor ordered two phone
company workers fired for cutting his home line.
Hawlati weekly's then editor-in-chief, Asus Hardi,
and editor Twana Osman were also fined 75,000 dinars
($50), prosecutor Jassim Muhammed Baba said by
telephone from Sulaimaniyah in Iraq's autonomous
Kurdistan.
The Misdemeanour Court in Sulaimaniyah ruled it was
the regional communications minister and not the
governor who had ordered the sacking of the two
women, who were later reinstated but on reduced
benefits.
The pair are the latest journalists to be punished
on charges of defaming Kurdish political leaders, a
series of cases that has stirred national and
international criticism.
Osman also reports from Sulaimaniyah for Reuters.
His lawyer, Hawre Yasin, said he would appeal: "The
reality is that it is true that the two women
employees were fired," Yasin said. "That means there
should have been no trial."
Iraqi Kurdistan, which broke with Saddam Hussein's
rule from Baghdad with U.S. help in 1991, prides
itself on having a better human rights record than
the rest of Iraq. But it has come under fire
recently over its record on press freedom.
In December, a court jailed Kurdish writer Kamal
Karim, an Austrian citizen, for 30 years for an
article on a Web site accusing Kurdistan President
Massoud Barzani of corruption and abuse of power.
The sentence was reduced in March to 18 months and
he was then pardoned and freed in April.
The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists
said that at his original trial, Karim was given
only five minutes to confer with his lawyer. After
the trial and the original sentence, European Union
president Austria urged his release.
Also in March, security forces working for the party
of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd and rival
of Barzani, arrested a high school teacher and
part-time writer, Hawez Hawezi, for a newspaper
article he wrote on corruption.
He was freed after three days but arrested again on
Sunday after complaining publicly about his previous
treatment.
Reuters
Top |
Kurd Net
does not take credit for and is not responsible for the content of news
information on this page
|
® 