Kurdish physician and freelance journalist Adel Hussein has been released from prison in Erbil (330 km north of Baghdad) under a pardon granted by the president of the Iraqi region of Kurdistan at the start of every religious festival, Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reported.
Hussein had been in prison since November 24, when he was found guilty of offending public decency under article 403 of the criminal code for writing an article about homosexuality for the independent Kurdish-language weekly Hawlati.
Hussein was found guilty of violating "public custom" 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The sentence handed down was based on the outdated 1969 Iraqi penal code, said Luqman Malazadah, Hussein's lawyer.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.
