PFAA slams detention of journalist Suleiman Ahmed

PFAA statement read, “The Dohuk Court set the date for the trial of journalist Suleiman Ahmed for the end of this month.

The journalist who was arrested by KDP since October is a correspondent for the “Roj News” news agency, and has been residing in the city of Sulaymaniyah since 2018. The security forces arrested him while returning from visiting his family in Syria for unknown reasons."

PFAA learned from a member working in the agency that 12 defense lawyers were sent to the courts and prisons inside the region to inquire about the whereabouts of the journalist’s detention, but the authorities refused to reveal his place, and even claimed that they had not arrested any journalist with that name. After 7 months, the authorities sent the agency a request for the journalist’s lawyer to inform him about Suleiman's location and the date of trial.

The journalist met with the journalist's lawyer for a few minutes, and according to the information that reached the agency from private sources, it confirmed that journalist Suleiman is in solitary confinement and has been subjected to physical torture by prison guards, in addition to the deterioration of his health condition. The authorities also refused his family to visit him, while the Dohuk Court announced that it would try the journalist under Article 1 of Law No. 21 of 2003, which relates to endangering the security of the Kurdistan region, and is the most prominent legal article on the basis of which many journalists and activists were tried in the region.

PFAA condemns the repressive behavior adopted by the regional government towards journalists.

The Association calls on the international organizations in Iraq to end the state of inaction and suspicious silence towards these practices throughout all regions of Iraq.

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