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A fierce verbal exchange prior to Kurdish
Journalist abduction
6.4.2007 |
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April 6, 2007
Erbil, Kurdistan region (Iraq), -- A leading
Kurdish journalist, Nabaz Goran, says he was
abducted by unknown gunmen, beaten up and later left
for dead on a country road, the head of the local
journalists union told AKI. "Nabaz contacted me just
a few minutes before reaching the hospital, and gave
me details of what happened," said union secretary
Zirak Kamal in an interview.
According to the journalist "five armed men wearing
military uniforms assaulted him on the way home,
forcing him into their pick up and
driving him out of the
Erbil where they beat him with their guns and
tortured him."
Before abandoning him in a remote area, the men told
him "not to ever write another word on the Kurdish
leaders and stop criticising them." |
Photo: Hawlati |
Several weeks ago there was a fierce verbal
exchange at a conference between Nabaz and Saru
Qadir, the press officer of the Kurdish Democratic
Union (the party of regional president Massoud
Barzani) after which Nabaz was escorted off the
premises.
However, the secretary of the journalists union has
rejected any possible link between the episodes: "I
cannot sat that these two things are connected, it
would be an enormous accusation with serious legal
repercussions," he said.
"There are some 60-70,000 armed people in Erbil and
it is impossible to identify those responsible (for
the attack) until the probe is completed," Kamal
added.
At the same time Kamal condemned the attack "in that
it was also an attack on the freedom of the press
and of human rights, as well as a violation of
regional authority and sovreignty."
adnki com
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