After more than 15 months in custody in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI), Kurdish journalist Silêman Ehmed was finally released from prison on Monday, reported the RojNews agency.

Ehmed was arrested on 25 October 2023 by security forces of the ruling KDP (Kurdistan Democratic Party), who initially took him to an unknown location. For months, information about his condition and whereabouts was denied. Only in February last year did it become known that he was being held in an unofficial prison of the KDP-affiliated Asayish in Duhok.

Ehmed was sentenced to three years in prison by a criminal court in Duhok on 29 July 2024. He was charged with “destabilizing the security and stability of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq” through his alleged membership of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), which is active in northern and eastern Syria. The PYD is treated as a banned “PKK offshoot” by the political power in Hewlêr (Erbil).

Lawyers for Ehmed appealed and the Supreme Court of Appeal overturned the verdict. In its decision on January 6, the court stated that there was no evidence of the crimes for which Ehmed had been charged and ordered his immediate release.

It was also the KDP intelligence service that had abducted Ehmed at the Sêmalka border crossing between the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (DAANES) and the KRI. The reason given at the time for the action was that Ehmed belonged to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). Ehmed, who was born in Afrin in 1992, last worked for the Arabic service of the Kurdish news agency RojNews, which is based in Sulaymaniyah. He is a Syrian citizen and has a permanent residence in the KRI.