A freelance journalist has been sentenced to six months in prison in the Kurdish city of Erbil for writing an article about health and sex for independent weekly Hawlati.
Adel Hussein, a doctor and a freelance journalist, was found guilty of violating "public custom" on November 24 by a court in Erbil for publishing an article in April 2007 in Hawlati about health and sex, Tariq Fatih, the weekly's publisher told the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). The court gave him a jail term—in violation of the press law, which does not allow for jailing journalists—and a 125,000 dinar (US$106) fine. He was sent to Mahata prison in Erbil the same day, Fatih said.
Erbil's public prosecutor filed a lawsuit against Hussein, former Editor-in-Chief Adnan Osman, and the publisher, Fatih said, adding that he and the editor-in-chief did not legally have to face trial because they did not receive a warrant.
The sentence handed down was based on the outdated 1969 Iraqi penal code, said Luqman Malazadah, Hussein's lawyer. Malazadah told CPJ that he has appealed the court decision. A new press law that took effect in October does not recognise violations of "publish custom" as an offence and also eliminates prison terms for journalists. The new law also says that a representative of the region's Journalist Syndicate must attend a journalist's trial, but Fatih said that no representative attended Hussein's.
"A judge of all people should know that ignorance of the law is no excuse," said CPJ Deputy Director Robert Mahoney. "This is the second time in a month that a court in Iraqi Kurdistan has sent a journalist to prison in violation of the new press law. We call on the authorities to ensure that the new legislation is widely promulgated and enforced, and we urge the appeal court to overturn this conviction and free Adel Hussein immediately."
“Sexual practices are part of the individual freedoms that a democratic state is supposed to promote and protect,” Paris-based Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) said. “Furthermore, Hussein did not defend homosexuality. He limited himself to describing a form of behaviour from a scientific viewpoint.”
RSF said, “We are astonished to learn that a press case has been tried under the criminal code. What was the point of adopting—and then liberalising—a press code in the Kurdistan region if people who contribute to the news media are still be tried under more repressive laws?”
A criminal court in Sulaymania recently convicted Shwan Dawdi, editor-in-chief of the Kirkuk-based newspaper Hawal, on three defamation charges filed by a retired judge. He was sent to jail. After spending nine days in prison, a court of appeal overturned the charges and said that Dawdi should be tried under the new law.
