May 4, 2011
SULAIMANIYAH,
Kurdistan region 'Iraq', — Iraqi and
international press groups marked a year on
Wednesday since the murder of a young Kurdish
journalist, criticising an official inquiry into his
death for lacking transparency.
Sardasht Osman, 22, was kidnapped on May 4, 2010 in
the Iraqi Kurdistan regional capital Erbil, not long
after he wrote articles critical of the government
and ruling parties. His corpse was
found a day
later in the restive northern city of Mosul with a
single bullet to the head.
However, an official inquiry formed by Kurdistan
president Massoud Barzani said last year that the
university student was killed because of his ties to
a militant group,www.ekurd.netwhich
subsequently denied it had shot him.
"We question the Kurdistan regional government's
determination to shed light on this murder and
condemn the lack of transparency surrounding its
investigation," Paris-based watchdog Reporters
Without Borders (RSF) said.
Aref Qarbani, the editor-in-chief of independent
Kurdish newspaper Arso, called to "reopen the
inquiry, and form a neutral committee to investigate
the case."
"The last committee was not neutral," Qarbani said.
|
Kurdish journalist and student Sardasht Osman (23) was kidnapped
in the capital of the semiautonomous Kurdistan
region of Iraq, tortured and then killed with
two bullets in the head for his scathing articles
against Massoud Barzani and Kurdistan Regional
Government KRG. |
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