Police in Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region announced they had arrested the leader of the main opposition party there, with his sister saying he would be held until his next court appearance after one scheduled for Wednesday was postponed.
Businessman turned politician Shaswar Abdulwahid leads the New Generation party, which holds 15 of the 100 seats in the northern region’s parliament and serves as the main opposition to the two former rebel movements that have dominated Kurdish politics for decades.
He was arrested on a court warrant at his home in the region’s second city Sulaimaniyah on Tuesday, police spokesman Sarkout Ahmed said.
A court official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Abdulwahid had been sentenced in absentia to six months in prison after repeatedly failing to appear at hearings for a defamation complaint from a former lawmaker.
He was due in court on Wednesday, but shortly before the hearing a judge postponed it to August 21, his sister Sirwa Abdulwahid, told AFP, adding her brother had not yet been allowed to see his family or his lawyer.
“The lawyer requested his release on bail, but the judge refused the request and decided to extend his detention until the 21st,” she said.
Sirwa Abdulwahid is an MP and heads the party’s bloc in the Iraqi federal parliament in Baghdad.
New Generation slammed its leader’s arrest as a ploy to sabotage a major action planned for next week to address the salary arrears endured by the region’s civil servants.
Shaswar Abdulwahid has been arrested several times since he launched the party in 2017. He was also wounded in an assassination attempt.
The region’s ruling alliance of the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan has been criticised by human rights groups for its intolerance of dissent and for resorting to arbitrary arrests.
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© Agence France-Presse
