Six-Year Trial in Sulaimani Court against a journalist

Nariman Sabir

“I have been standing trial in the Sulaimani court for six years,” said Sabir.In 2018, after an official from the Kurdistan Child Protection Organization unfairly attacked both me and my daughter, Nma, during the Red Line program (Heli Sur) on NRT, I responded by stating that I had no intention of listening to the organization’s officials because I believed the organization was affiliated with a political party. Following my comments, the Kurdistan Child Protection Organization filed a lawsuit against me under the mobile phone misuse law, leading to my arrest.

I was eventually released due to public protests and civil pressure from supportive individuals. On the first day of my detention, both the Sulaimani Court and the Kurdistan Union of Journalists issued statements claiming that I had been treated in accordance with the Journalism Act, modifying the charges from the mobile phone misuse law to the Journalism Act. However, these statements were untrue and misleading, as my arrest warrant was later reissued under the Mobile Phone Misuse Act.

Since my arrest, I have faced an ongoing trial for six years. Despite multiple court hearings, my trial has now been postponed again until January 19.

Here, I wish to clarify a few points. My response was not an act of mobile phone misuse; it was a media rebuttal to the misrepresentation by an official from the organization. Mobile phone misuse typically involves activities like secretly installing cameras, taking unauthorized photos, using them in political disputes, or posting them on anonymous pages. My so-called “crime” was simply stating that the Kurdistan Child Protection Organization operates as a party-affiliated group. I refuse to retract my statement and would declare it again a hundred thousand times: the Kurdistan Child Protection Organization is affiliated with the Kurdistan National Union (PUK).

If the Child Protection Organization is non-partisan, then Chawder and Galawezh wouldn’t be party-affiliated and wouldn’t be under occupation today. The so-called “freedom” they claim to uphold is an illusion, and my family has been made victims for exercising freedom of expression and advocating for our rights. Their treatment of us is nothing but an attempt to silence us or force us to align with them.

We do not broadcast our suffering or wish to make headlines, nor do we seek to distract others with our personal struggles. We have sacrificed everything in pursuit of a life of freedom and prosperity. Now, however, deprived of welfare and stripped of our rights, property, wealth, income, land, jobs, and businesses, whenever we attempt to reclaim our rights, they unleash their loyal followers to destroy us.

I want the PUK to understand that a six-year trial orchestrated by an organization whose senior members are fully aware of the case is equivalent to a six-year imprisonment. What was done to the Ba’athists in the past, and is being done to us today, will inevitably be done to others tomorrow.