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Writer In Prison RELEASED!
May 04, 2006
Story Continued...
2 May 2006
Update #3 to RAN 53/05
IRAQ: Writer Kamal Sayid Qadir (aka Kamal Karim) released.
The Writers in Prison Committee of International PEN welcomes the release
of writer Kamal Sayid Qadir (aka Kamal Karim), who was released on 3 April
2006. His release followed widespread international pressure on the case.
According to PEN’s information, writer Kamal Sayid Qadir, aged 48, was
arrested on 26 October 2005 by members of Parastin, the security
intelligence service of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), one of two
parties holding power in the Kurdish-dominated region. Dr Qadir, an Iraqi
Kurd who now lives in Vienna, was on a visit to Iraqi Kurdistan at the time
of his arrest. He was reportedly on his way to a meeting with KDP officials
at a hotel in the city of Erbil when he was arrested. KDP intelligence
agents are believed to have seized him because of articles that he had
published on the Internet in the weeks before he returned to Iraqi
Kurdistan which were critical of the KDP authorities, including Mas’ud
Barzani. Dr Qadir is known for his critical writings about the political
leadership of the Kurdish territories of Iraq.
Kamal Qadir was sentenced by a state security court in Erbil on 19 December
2005 to thirty years in prison on defamation charges for his critical
writings. This sentence was quashed by an appeals court in January 2006,
but he remained detained and was re-tried by a lower court and sentenced to
eighteen months in prison on 26 March 2006.
Dr Qadir is now back at home in Vienna with his family. Thank you to all
who sent appeals on this case.