- Abdulwahid was arrested on August 12 at his home in Sulaymaniyah, Kurdistan’s second-largest city and a PUK stronghold, on a defamation charge filed by a former member of parliament.
SULAYMANIYAH: A court in Iraqi Kurdistan on Tuesday sentenced opposition leader Shaswar Abdulwahid to five months in prison, his lawyer and party said.
The businessman-turned-politician leads the New Generation party, which holds 15 of the 100 seats in the northern region’s parliament and nine of the 329 seats in Iraq’s parliament.
His party is the main opposition to the two historic parties of the autonomous Kurdish region: the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK).
The court sentenced Abdulwahid to “five months in prison,” his lawyer Bashdar Hasan told AFP, adding that his team would appeal.
In its statement, the New Generation promised to intensify efforts to combat the KDP and PUK and expressed readiness to hold parliamentary elections in Iraq in November.
The party is part of an electoral alliance led by Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani for elections that are often marked by bitter political disputes.
Abdulwahid was arrested on August 12 at his home in Sulaymaniyah, Kurdistan’s second-largest city and a PUK stronghold, on a defamation lawsuit filed by a former lawmaker.
He has been arrested several times since founding his party in 2017 and was also injured in an assassination attempt.
Iraqi Kurdistan bills itself as an oasis of stability, but activists and opponents often denounce corruption, arbitrary arrests and violations of press freedom and the right to protest.
Ten days after Abdulwahid’s detention, clashes broke out in Sulaymaniyah during the arrest of another opposition figure, former senior PUK leader Lahur Sheikh Jangi.