Nearly three months after his arrest at a Syria-Iraq border crossing, the whereabouts of a Syrian Kurdish journalist are unknown, and his family told VOA that they have not been able to reach him or get legal representation for him.
Sleman Mohammed Ahmed, an Arabic editor for RojNews, which is affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), was arrested by Kurdistan Regional Government security forces at the Semalka Border Crossing between Syria and Iraqi Kurdistan on Oct. 25.
His mother, Sultana Ahmed, said she and her family deserve to know where he is being held.
“I conveyed my voice to the Kurdistan Regional Government, but they did not respond. I asked a lawyer to represent us, but they did not allow him to see my son. I conveyed my voice to the Autonomous Administration [of Syrian Kurds], but they did not answer me, either. I just want my son's fate to be revealed,” she told VOA.
VOA Kurdish Service’s requests for comment from Kurdistan Regional Government authorities remain unanswered.
On Oct. 30, the Duhok Security Directorate issued a statement saying Ahmed was “a PKK cadre” and that the province’s security forces arrested him for “traveling for secret and illegal work for the PKK,” a U.S.-designated terrorist organization.
The statement said Ahmed’s arrest “has nothing to do with journalism.”
However, a day before the security directorate’s statement, the local press freedom watchdog Metro Center said Ahmed was visiting his family in Aleppo, Syria, to attend his father’s funeral. The group condemned the arrest and said the visit was done according to “legal procedures.”
Ahmed’s family told VOA that he has not been granted the right to hire a lawyer, despite their persistent demands.
According to Articles 1and 3 of the Iraqi and Kurdish Criminal Justice Principles Act, every suspect is entitled to have a lawyer, and the investigating judge must ask the suspect if he wants legal representation before any statements are taken from him. The law says the procedure should happen within 24 hours of the detention.
Nariman Ahmed, a lawyer from Sulaymaniyah, Iraq, who was appointed by Ahmed's family to represent the journalist, said that the court in Duhok ordered the appointment of a lawyer but that the city’s security office obstructed such efforts “in clear violation of the law.”
“On November 11, we visited Duhok Security, and they said he was not with them. But we know from some released inmates that he is there. We even know his cell number,” he told VOA.
Duhok and Erbil security officials have rejected VOA requests for comment.
Nariman Ahmed said, "I think this case was a biased case from the beginning. According to our information, the investigating judge has not seen him yet because they want to force Sleman to confess. But he has not confessed to being guilty.”
The PKK is a militant group and political party of Turkey’s Kurds. The group is legal in Iraqi Kurdistan but is classified as a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.
Despite its legal status in Iraqi Kurdistan, the PKK’s presence in the region is challenged by Iraqi Kurdistan’s ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), which enjoys good relations with the Turkish government.
This story originated in VOA’s Kurdish Service.
