Two months before his release date, Sherwan Sherwani sentenced to additional four years in prison
On 20 July 2023, the Criminal Court of Erbil in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq sentenced the Kurdish human rights defender and journalist Sherwan Sherwani to an additional four years imprisonment for the alleged falsifying and forging of a document submitted to the prison’s administration.
On 28 April 2021, the Appeal Court of Erbil confirmed the six years' imprisonment sentence for human rights defender Sherwan Sherwani.
On 16 February 2021, the criminal court of Erbil in the Kurdistan region of Iraq convicted human rights defender Sherwan Sherwani of ‘threatening national security’ and sentenced him to six years imprisonment.
Sherwan Sherwani is a Kurdish journalist and human rights defender. He is the chief editor of Ashur magazine and an active member of the human rights organisation 17 Shubat. Sherwan Sherwani’s work as a journalist covers human rights issues in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, particularly focusing on corruption issues in the Kurdish government and on prisoners rights in the Asayish prison's – Kurdish security organisation in the Kurdistan region of Iraq. The human rights defender regularly participated in peaceful demonstrations to promote the social and political rights in the region.
On 20 July 2023, the Criminal Court of Erbil in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq sentenced the Kurdish human rights defender and journalist Sherwan Sherwani to an additional four years imprisonment for the alleged falsifying and forging of a document submitted to the prison’s administration. The human rights defender was due to be released on 9 September 2023 after spending approximately three years in prison.
Sherwan Sherwani is a Kurdish journalist and human rights defender. He is the chief editor of Ashur magazine and an active member of the human rights organisation 17 Shubat. Sherwan Sherwani’s work as a journalist covers human rights issues in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, particularly focusing on corruption issues in the Kurdistan Regional Government and on prisoners’ rights in Asayish prisons. Asayish are the Kurdish internal security forces and the primary intelligence agency in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. The human rights defender regularly participated in peaceful demonstrations to promote social and political rights in the region.
On 20 July 2023, Sherwan Sherwani was tried and sentenced to an additional four years imprisonment by the Criminal Court of Erbil. The human rights defender was convicted of falsifying and forging a document which was submitted to the prison’s administration on 28 August 2022. The document was to retract a previously submitted request for conditional release by Sherwan Sherwani and fellow Badinan prisoners Guhdar Zebari, Hariwan Issa, Eyaz Karam and Shivan Saeed.
The Badinan prisoners, or Badinan Five, is a term used to refer to the above mentioned five human rights defenders, journalists, and activists who were arrested in 2020 following a crackdown on freedom of expression in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. The crackdown came amid protests against corruption in the Kurdistan Regional Government and to promote social and political rights.
Sherwan Sherwani was accused of forging the signatures of the other Badinan prisoners. He was convicted despite the fact that the other prisoners testified that they had explicitly given each other permission to sign on each other's behalf. The court sentenced the human rights defender to a two and a half-year sentence and a one and a half-year sentence, based on Articles 295 and 298 of the Iraqi Penal Code respectively, totalling in an additional four years in prison.
Community Peacemaker Teams - Iraqi Kurdistan (CPT-IK) had documented multiple violations of fair trial guarantees, and had additionally mentioned the lack of evidence for the applicability of the said articles of the Penal Code, underscoring that this is not an isolated case.
In February 2022, a decree granted by the President of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, Nechirvan Barzani, reduced the sentence of the human rights defender to half the length from six to three years imprisonment. Sherwan Sherwani was supposed to be released in approximately one month on 8 September 2023.
On 16 February 2021, the Criminal Court of Erbil convicted the Badinan Five, including Sherwan Sherwani, for “threatening national security” and sentenced them to six years imprisonment. The convictions were a result of a two-day trial that was marked by serious violations of the basic international fair trial standards. The Court dismissed what Sherwan Sherwani, along with the other journalists and activists, stated in court that their confessions were extracted under torture. The sentences were upheld on appeal.
Front Line Defenders is extremely concerned by the conviction and sentencing of the human rights defender Sherwan Sherwani as it believes it is solely a result of his legitimate human rights work. Front Line Defenders urges the authorities in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq to quash the human rights defender’s conviction and immediately release him. It further urges the authorities to guarantee in all circumstances that all human rights defenders in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq are able to carry out their legitimate human rights activities without fear of reprisals, and free of all restrictions, including judicial harassment.
On 28 April 2021, the Appeal Court of Erbil confirmed the six years' imprisonment sentence for human rights defender Sherwan Sherwani.
On 7 October 2020, Sherwan Sherwani was detained violently by several policemen in plain clothes. On 16 February 2021, the criminal court of Erbil in the Kurdistan region of Iraq convicted Sherwan Sherwani of ‘threatening national security’ and sentenced him to six years' imprisonment.
On 16 February 2021, the criminal court of Erbil in the Kurdistan region of Iraq convicted human rights defender Sherwan Sherwani of ‘threatening national security’ and sentenced him to six years imprisonment.
Sherwan Sherwani is a Kurdish journalist and human rights defender. He is the chief editor of Ashur magazine and an active member of the human rights organisation 17 Shubat. Sherwan Sherwani’s work as a journalist covers human rights issues in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, particularly focusing on corruption issues in the Kurdish government and on prisoners rights in the Asayish prison's – Kurdish security organisation in the Kurdistan region of Iraq. The human rights defender regularly participated in peaceful demonstrations to promote the social and political rights in the region.
On 16 February 2021, the criminal court of Erbil convicted Sherwan Sherwani and his colleagues of ‘threatening national security’ and sentenced the human rights defender to six years imprisonment. The court’s decision was based on evidence taken from a group chat between Sherwan Sherwani and his colleagues, in which they spoke about corruption issues related to oil wells in the Kurdistan region of Iraq. According to Sherwan Sherwani’s lawyer, the evidence used to convict Sherwan Sherwani and his colleagues was fabricated, and when the lawyer asked to further discuss this evidence, the judge answered that “the court has no time.” Sherwan Sherwani and his colleagues gave their testimonies in the Kurdish language. The judge did not speak Kurdish, so the human rights defender and his colleague testimonies were translated to Arabic. According to Sherwan Sherwani’s lawyer, the authorities used the translation process to fabricate the testimonies.
On 7 October 2020, several police officers raided Sherwan Sherwani’s house near Erbil and violently arrested him. The police officers were in pain clothes and some of them were masked. According to Sherwan Sherwani’s lawyer, the police pointed guns directly at Sherwan Sherwani in front of his family. During the raid the police confiscated some of the human rights defenders personal items including his two laptops and his notebook. After the raid, the authorities refused to let the family or the lawyer know where they had taken Sherwan Sherwani and his whereabouts remained unknown for 19 days.
On 11 October 2020, the Kurdistan regional government’s international advocacy coordinator tweeted that Sherwan Sherwani and his colleagues were involved in foreign funding with the aim of destabilising the country, endangering the lives of judges and encouraging violence during anti-government protests. On 26 October 2020, when the human rights defender was allowed to meet with his lawyer for the first time, he told him that during his incommunicado detention he was subjected to severe beatings, regularly placed in solitary confinement and he was tortured to confess to charges he never committed.
The whereabouts of Sherwan Sherwani and his colleagues remain unknown, the authorities refused to let the lawyer know Sherwan Sherwani's whereabouts after his convection on 16 February2021 . Since his detention, no family visits have been allowed and the human rights defender has no access to his lawyer. Before his detention, Sherwan Sherwani had been frequently harassed and was arbitrarily detained by the Kurdish authorities in February 2019 regarding his peaceful and legitimate human rights work.
Front Line Defenders is deeply concerned regarding the convection and sentence of human rights defender Sherwan Sherwani. Front Line Defenders believes that Sherwan Sherwani has been convicted and sentenced solely regarding his peaceful and legitimate human rights work.
