27 March 2006

Alert

Kurdish-born Austrian cyber-dissident jailed for 18 months for online "defamation"


Incident details

Kamal Sayid Qadir

web dissident(s)

(RSF/IFEX) - Austrian national of Kurdish origin, Kamal Sayid Qadir, who was arrested five months ago for posting "defamatory" articles about the authorities in Iraqi Kurdistan, has been sentenced to 18 months in prison.

At an earlier hearing he had been handed down a sentence, since cancelled, of 30 years imprisonment on exactly the same charge.

Reporters Without Borders said the conviction was contrary to international standards in freedom of expression cases. "Any prison sentence for an offence of opinion is unacceptable, even in cases of insult or defamation," the press freedom organisation said.

"We are particularly wary of the operation of the Iraqi Kurdish justice system which started by condemning this jurist to 30 years in jail, then divided his sentence by 20, while the charges remained the same. We hope the appeal court will overturn this decision and set him free".

Kamal Sayid Qadir's conviction was covered under Article 111 paragraph 433 of the 1969 criminal code, which laid down prison sentences of up to five years for defamation. The fact that the jurist belongs to a family of "24 martyrs" of Saddam Hussein's regime was taken into account by the judge as extenuating circumstances.

His lawyer, Govend Baban, told Reporters Without Borders that the article in the criminal code could only be applied in the case of a complaint by an individual and not to a case brought by a public ministry, as was the case. He added that the court in Erbil was not competent to try the case, because the offending articles were published in Austria. His client has appealed the verdict, which he called "unfair" and "political".

Kamal Sayid Qadir has been held since 26 October 2005 in Erbil prison in the autonomous region of Kurdistan, in the north of Iraq. He was sentenced, on 19 December 2005, for "defamation of public institutions", a ruling that was subsequently quashed. In a statement posted on the website http://www.kurdmedia.com, the jurist acknowledged making comments that were "inappropriate" towards some people referred to in his articles.



Source:

Reporters Without Borders
47, rue Vivienne
75002 Paris
France
rsf (@) rsf.org
Phone: +33 1 44 83 84 84
Fax: +33 1 45 23 11 51
 

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More on this case

Cyber-dissident Kamal Sayid Qadir released 4 April 2006 RSF calls for release of imprisoned cyber-dissident Kamal Sayid Qadir, subject to torture and death threats 3 March 2006 Writer Kamal Sayid Qadir transferred to a prison hospital; serious health concerns 22 February 2006 Cyber-dissident still in prison despite release announcement 3 February 2006 CPJ protests 30-year jail term for Kurdish writer on defamation conviction 12 January 2006 Kurdish regional government says 30-year sentence was imposed for defaming public institutions 11 January 2006 Thirty-year prison sentence for criticising Kurdish regional president in Internet articles 5 January 2006 Writer detained for articles critical of Kurdish authorities 14 December 2005

Iraq

Journalist protection law falls short, should be repealed, says CPJ 25 January 2012 Journalist illegally detained, while another is attacked 23 January 2012 News media torched, journalists attacked and arrested in outbreak of violence 5 December 2011 New wave of abuses and intimidation against the media 31 October 2011 Series of new attacks and acts of intimidation against journalists 21 October 2011 See all alerts: Iraq


 
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