The Suppression of Freedoms Under the Guise of Law in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq

Bakhtiar Ali, in his speech “Saints and Phobias” from The Last Smile of the Dictator, eloquently describes the state of law in our countries, stating:

“Any historian who looks at this period in the future will find no other name than the ‘golden age of the suppression of freedoms through the law.’

I don’t take the law very seriously in our countries. Whether the laws are good or bad, it is not the judge who implements them, but the politician who takes the action and applies them at will and when he wants.

Our judges are more like the old heralds who walked the markets and streets reading aloud the Sultan’s orders. Their job is only to read the orders given by the Sultan in advance.”

This observation is tragically relevant today in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. The case of journalist Sherwan Sherwani exemplifies how the legal system has been weaponized for political ends.

Sherwani, who was sentenced to five years in prison, was due to be released today. However, despite having served his time, a judge has decided to keep him incarcerated for an ambiguous reason one so vague that even his own lawyer has not been informed of it. This alarming development reflects the political control over the judiciary that Ali describes, where legal decisions are not made based on justice but rather on the whims of those in power.

The continued imprisonment of Sherwani signals an ongoing trend of using the law as a tool for repression. It serves as yet another example of how the legal framework in the Kurdistan Region is manipulated to silence dissent, suppress free speech, and maintain political dominance. If such practices continue, history will indeed record this era as the “golden age of the suppression of freedoms through the law.”